The three letterbooks, which cover the years 1767-1773, 1772-1774, and 1774-1777, contain office copies of letters sent by James Robinson, the firm's colonial agent or "General Superintendent" for Virginia, who resided at Falmouth on the Rappahannock. Readers of Jacob Price's "The Rise of Glasgow in the Chesapeake Tobacco Trade, 1707-1775," (William and Mary Quarterly (Third Series), XI, pp. 179-199) will recognize the significance of Robinson's letterbooks; but even they will be impressed by the richness and variety of his letters. Although primarily concerned with the purchase of tobacco and allied business matters, Robinson occasionally included information of more general local interest. The first letterbook, which covers the years 1767-1773, contains mostly letters from Robinson to other people in America and particularly to his associates and subordinates in Virginia, together with a few to his firm in Glasgow. The great majority of the letters in this series were to the local factors or storekeepers in Virginia and give advice, instructions and information intended to govern their activities in the purchase of tobacco and the sale of goods. Some contain Robinson's opinions on economic conditions in Virginia; some include important new material on the rate of exchange, the scarcity of money, and the credit crisis of 1772-1773. One item of outstanding political interest is a letter of July 11, 1770, which shows how the Virginia merchants and the British factors had secured favorable amendments to the Non-Importation Associations of the previous year. The second letterbook contains Robinson's letters to his Glasgow employers for the years 1771-1774. These letters, intended to inform the transatlantic partners of conditions in Virginia and of the way in which their instructions were being carried out, shed light not only on the tobacco trade in those years of crisis but also on other points of commercial and political significance. Letters of 1773 and 1774, in particular, discuss the growing importance of wheat farming and grain export in the Virginia economy. A June 20, 1774 letter, from the merchants' meeting at Williamsburg, indicates that orders for the purchase of wheat and flour were by then the principal source of credits on which bills of exchange were drawn. The Virginia House of Burgesses' resolution for a day of "Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer" is prominently mentioned in a letter of May 28, 1774; and others of this period canvass the effects, from British factors and firms, of the refusal of Virginia lawyers to transact civil business after the lapse of the fee law. The third letterbook, 1774-1777, contains letters to William Cuninghame & Co., and like the second letterbook, has both economic and political significance. They contain Robinson's opinions on the collection of debts and the stoppage of the sale of tobacco. Several letters dated June, 1775 are written from Williamsburg and mention the "Magazine affair." A May 3, 1775 letter describes the reaction to the news of Lexington and Concord. The last letter in 1777 is written from London.
