Their economy
Maryland based it's economy on tobacco, which required backbreaking work. Every three or four years the soil would dry up and the workers would have to clear new land. Most laborers came as either servants or slaves. Maryland attracted few women as settlers. Maryland and the Chesapeake region provided Europe with tobacco, beaver pelts, timber, and other "exotic novelties." Corn, furs, and some beans were regularly traded to the northern colonies for dried fish and livestock. Similar items and, occasionally, shell beads were traded to the Caribbean for manufactured goods brought from Europe, sugar, rum, servants, and later, enslaved labor. Trade ships could also transport the occasional passenger visiting another colony or visiting other areas around the Maryland colony. Tobacco was the basis for nearly all trade that took place in Maryland. Payment for goods coming into the colony was based on profits gained from the farming of tobacco. Once emptied of their trade goods, the ships returned to England filled with tobacco.