Three courses were open to the planter who had tobacco.

He might sell it to some local mercantile house, but these were not numerous nor as a rule conveniently situated to the general run of planters.

He might deposit it in a tobacco warehouse, receiving in return a receipt, which he could sell if he saw fit and could find a purchaser.

Or he could send his tobacco direct to an English agent to be sold.
If a great planter and particularly if situated upon navigable water, this last was the course he was apt to follow.

He would have his own wharf to which once or twice a year a ship would come bringing the supplies he had ordered months before and taking away the great staple.
If brought from a distance, the tobacco was rarely hauled to the wharf in wagons--the roads were too wretched for that--instead it was packed in a great cylindrical hogshead through which an iron or wooden axle was put.