Question

What political resource helped increased the cultivation of indigo.

Answer 1

In the mid–seventeenth century Dutch settlers in present-day New York tried to produce blue dye from wild indigo plants, with moderate success. In the 1720s the French government supplied French settlers in Louisiana with indigo plant seeds. The indigo crop was successfully cultivated there, and factories were built for the manufacture of dye. Then, in 1744 Eliza Lucas successfully cultivated, processed, and exported indigo from her father's plantation outside Charleston, South Carolina. Her shipment of six pounds of "Carolina Indigo" to England caused quite a sensation in London. To encourage other colonial planters to grow and produce indigo, the British government immediately offered a "bounty," or bonus of six pence per pound on their indigo exports. As a result, exports soared from 6 pounds in 1744 to 5,000 pounds the following year. By 1755 the Carolina colony alone was exporting around 200,000 pounds of indigo annually; Georgia was just beginning to export indigo, with 4,500 pounds exported that year. Georgia's indigo exportation reached its peak in 1770, with more than 22,000 pounds.