How did the tobacco crop help Jamestown survive?

Answer 1

The settlers of Jamestown grew tobacco, and then traded it for money or other crops. Tobacco helped them survive because they could trade it for other things that they may have needed.

Answer 2

Officials of the Virginia Company established the colony at Jamestown to make a profit. They expected the colonists to find marketable Natural Resources, develop industries or produce an agricultural product that would succeed in making money for the colony and its investors in England. After finding no precious metals and failing at such endeavors as glassmaking and silk production, John Rolfe finally succeeded by growing a sweet variety of tobacco which was all the rage in England.

This meant land became a very important resource since a great deal of land was required to grow tobacco. Because growing tobacco also required a lot of hard work and labor, more people (human resources) were needed to work in the fields. The more workers one had, the more tobacco they could grow and the greater the profit they could recognize.

Indentured servitude met this need at first, but later slavery became entrenched as an institution in Virginia, because of the labor force it provided the colonists for tobacco production. It didn't take the colonists long to realize that economic specialization would be the way to go, and tobacco became a cash crop for the colony. So tobacco helped Jamestown's economy by giving it the funding it needed to survive.