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By the late 1500s cannabis hemp had become a scarce commodity in Europe. Holland had gained a monopoly on the importation of cheap hemp from the East Indies, and naval blockades cut off the traditional supply of Russian hemp that had been easily obtained since the height of the Roman Empire.
Since huge amounts of hemp were needed by all of the European naval powers to outfit their warships, merchants, and naval fleets, the European monarchs looked to the New World as an alternate source of cannabis. Thus at the dawn of the seventeenth century Spain was sowing hemp in Chile, New England was growing hemp for Britain, and the French Royal Warehouses promised to buy all the hemp that Canadian farmers could grow.
During this period bounties were often awarded for hemp cultivation, many taxes could be paid in hemp stalks, and severe penalties were often imposed upon farmers who did not produce a sufficient quantity of cannabis hemp. Many modern cities and regions took their names from their main crop, producing Hampshires, Hempsteads, and Hamptons.
The difficulty at this time was not in growing cannabis hemp, but rather in preparing it for market. Sophisticated hemp breaking machinery was not invented until the 1920s. Prior to that time hemp was of necessity a labour intensive crop, requiring a process called "retting" to prepare it for use. The long outer fibres of the cannabis plant needed to be separated from the inner pulpy hurds, and this was accomplished by soaking the stalks in water until the inner hurds had rotted away sufficiently for the fibres to be easily removed.
(Added: Wed Jul 24 2002)
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