Aside from Hemp being used for the construction of Ships, canvas sails, sealant, rope, cloth, paper, rugs, carpets, and drapes; hemp was the material used to make paper upon which were written many American Laws, including the original draft of the American Declaration of Independence.

Russia produced 80% of the western world's hemp from 1740-1940.
Hemp seed oil and linseed oil were used, for thousands of years, to make paints and varnishes, until petrochemicals were introduced in the late 1930's.

Hemp seed was also the world's principal source of combustible oil for lamps, until the early 1800's when it was seconded by Whale oil, and then it was replaced by Kerosene and petrochemicals in the late 1850's.

In the early 1900's, Henry Ford, along with many important figures in Engineering, realised that fossil fuels had to be replaced by renewable source fuel, like Hemp, corn stalks and waste paper. Biomass (organic fuel sources) can be converted to make Methane, Methanol or Gasoline at a fraction of the cost that using coal, oil or natural gas incurs, especially when one takes the environmental costs into account.

Hemp could be a national means of producing oils and gasoline that currently costs nations billions of dollars importing oil, paying soldiers to guard its delivery, paying drillers and Super-tanker Captains. The important point about biomass fuels is that they produce no, or little, harmful by-products, such as Sulphur.

One acre of Hemp could be used to make the same amount of paper, for example, as 4.1 acres of trees. Henry Ford also constructed a working automobile, entirely from Hemp compounds!

Hemp seed's proteins resemble proteins found in human blood. This makes it easier to digest them. They also contain essential fatty acids with almost no saturated fat, which is a contributing factor to heart disease. Soy produces more protein, but of a lesser quality. Also, Soy is greatly dependant on certain grow-conditions, which Cannabis/Hemp plants is not. Just one handful of seeds, eaten daily, will provide the adequate dose of proteins and essential oils a human adult needs.

Hemp grows well, almost anywhere, and requires little pesticides. The roots reach deep into the soil and growing plants in the same soil for twenty years has shown little to no depreciation in the soil quality. Also, as leaves fall and decompose on the soil, they return essential Nitrogen and minerals, which is great for the soil and beneficial to the plant also.

So using less fertilizers and pesticides helps the environment and cuts costs to farmers. Bear in mind that this refers to the Hemp use of the plant. Many growers now concentrate on encouraging the growth of psychoactive compounds in the plant, meaning that grow procedures be controlled, which can mean paying-out lots of money for special lamps and bulbs, ventilation and soil nutrients, hydroponics grow systems, rock-wool, salt-free sand etc. Growing the plant for industrial use does not require all these costly products and processes.
The plant produces more plant-pulp in three months than any other source of natural pulp. Its fibres are among the strongest natural fibres produced by a weed or any other plant. So it's use in paper and cloth is plain to see; especially considering how the planet's tree population has fallen so dramatically in such a short space of time. Trees can take decades to grow to maturity; the Cannabis plant is an annual plant and requires less land space to grow on. Even the process of treating the stalks and branches of the plant, to prepare it for pulping, returns essential nutrients to the earth; instead of using unnatural and harmful chemicals which pollute our lands and seas.
Cotton, for example, consumes vast amounts of soil nutrients, making the soil unusable after some years and requiring that more fertilisers are used because the soil is unable to cater for the plant life.