England received nearly all of its tobacco from the American colonies, and so tobacco provided support for the theory of mercantilism, which held that a country increased its wealth by decreasing imports and increasing exports (“Mercantilismo”, 2008). Since England sourced tobacco from its own colonies, there was low demand for the importation of tobacco from surrounding European colonies, thus supporting the practice of both British mercantilism and colonialism. Tobacco played a vital role in the Triangle Trade and slave trade; tobacco was the largest export for many Southern colonies, and those Southern fields were manned by African slaves. Ironically, tobacco became a symbol of the colonies themselves, as the leaves were used as currency in the British colonies in America – literally a “cash crop” (Romaniello, 2007). In fact, the image of a tobacco leaf was printed on old continental coins during the American Revolution, and tobacco was used as collateral for French loans (Romaniello,