tobacco 1.Any of various plants of the genus Nicotiana, especially N. tabacum, native to tropical America and widely cultivated for their leaves, which are used primarily for smoking. 2. The leaves of these plants, dried and processed chiefly for use in cigarettes, cigars, or snuff or for smoking in pipes. 3. Products made from these plants. 4. The habit of smoking tobacco: I gave up tobacco. 5. A crop of tobacco. ETYMOLOGY: Spanish tabaco, possibly of Caribbean origin. The American Heritage
"And surely in my opinion, there cannot be a more base, and yet hurtfull corruption in a Countrey, then is the vile vse (or other abuse) of taking Tobacco in this Kingdome, which hath moued me, shortly to discouer the abuses thereof in this following little Pamphlet."
"A Covnter-Blaste To Tobacco", by King James I, 1604.
"King James I bans domestic cultivation of tobacco ?' There were many attemps to grow this delightful weed, for it doth grow well in UK., but the problem be in drying it before a nice mold would rot it away. Hops be easier.
A contemporary view of life in London is offered by Cosmo, the future Grand Duke of Turin, who visited England in the Spring of 1669.
"It is a common custom with the lower order of people rather than with the nobility, who are less given to it, after dinner or at public houses, when they are transacting business of any kind, to take tobacco, and smoke, so that there does not pass a day in which the artisans do not indulge themselves in going to the public-houses, which are exceedingly numerous, neglecting their work, however urgent it may be; hence it is that the French make fortunes in London, for, being more attentive to their business, they sell their manufactures at a lower price than the English, who would fain derive the same profits as other artisans, however little they work."
@@@
From: TRAVELS OF COSMO THE THIRD, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY, THROUGH ENGLAND, DURING THE REIGN OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND (1669) page 398 TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN MANUSCRIPT https://archive.org/stream/travel…
His highness, Cosmo, must be considered only as a traveler. Under his direction, the narrator of the records was Count Lorenzo Magalotti, afterwards Secretary to the Academy del Cimento, and one of the most learned and eminent characters of the court of Ferdinand II.
Angela McShane, Senior Research Fellow and Head of Renaissance and Early Modern Studies at the Victoria & Albert Museum, has written about the use of snuff and tobacco at https://www.historytoday.com/arch…
A few highlights:
British men and women of all classes consumed tobacco in increasing quantities from the late 16th century onwards. Imported from the ‘New World’, by the middle of the 17th century the tobacco plant was being grown commercially in Europe, as well as in slave-worked plantations in the Americas. The addictive product was profitable, its trade was monopolistic and rife with crime and controversy. Debates raged in the press over its effects, while government dependence on the profits it generated had political implications. Attempts to undercut the American trade by establishing plantations in England led to riots and armed suppression, while the taxing of tobacco without parliamentary approval was one of the many crimes visited on King Charles’ unfortunate head.
In his “Counterblaste to Tobacco”, published in 1604, King James complained that elite men found life as a non-smoker socially difficult: “Divers men very sound both in judgement, and complexion, have bene at last forced to take it [tobacco] also without desire, partly because they were ashamed to seeme singular.” By writing his pamphlet, King James sought to discourage smoking, warning, among other things, that it caused cancer. A decade later, the chronicler Edmund Howes wrote: ‘At this day, [tobacco is] commonly used by most men and many women.’ King James did not give up on his campaign. In 1619 a proclamation attempted to ban smoking from alehouses, while in the 1620s high taxes were imposed to make the commodity prohibitively expensive. Yet by the 1630s tobacco was too valuable for the government to constrain. Key figures in Parliament developed interests in overseas plantations, while the customs and excise duties it brought in were substantial. Smoking became de rigeur at every level of society, in inns, alehouses and shops, in private and in the streets (from which, in the 1670s, the Norwich authorities unsuccessfully sought to ban it).
The essentials of smoking – a clay pipe, a light and tobacco – could be obtained in an alehouse, tavern or coffee house. But tobacco ranged hugely in quality – a constant subject for debate in company – and nothing could compare to the comfort of having an ounce or two of one’s own favorite blend to hand.
Personal tobacco boxes soon became indispensable to the British smoker. They are noted in printed literature from as early as 1607, in documentary sources from the 1620s and, later, in wills and inventories. By 1649 their ubiquity had increased to such an extent that Charles Hoole thought it necessary to adapt his best-selling “Easie entrance to the Latin tongue” by offering Latin translations for ‘tobacco pipe’, ‘stopper’ and ‘box’. By 1700 a personalized box for snuff or tobacco had become a vital accessory for any man, whether a laborer or a lord.
Smoking and snuffing involved an elaborate, ritual choreography of objects, gestures and discourses that evoked a gamut of emotions ranging from frustration to satisfaction. When performed in company, as they often were, these rituals involved etiquettes of sharing and borrowing. One comedy drama laid out the precise actions of the smoking ritual, as if they were a military operation. It was to be exercised ‘till you stink, defile the room, offend your friends, destroy your liver and Lungs, and bid adieu to the world with a scowling flux’.
In 1623 Endymion Porter was in Spain with Prince Charles’ marriage embassy with George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. He wrote to his wife that he ‘sent my Ladie Villiers a tobackco box, I hope shee will esteeme it as a token of my love’. ... we cannot be certain these women used the boxes themselves – the former may have been a curiosity for a collection, ... – but both were clearly used as receptacles for affection. Although elite women are often described as having their own snuff-boxes, no tobacco box has come to light that specifically names an English woman as owner. However, the use of heart decorations and affectionate inscriptions on tobacco boxes in which initials, rather than names, appear suggests that they were popular gifts for young ladies to give to young men and, perhaps, the other way round. The increasing demand for such gifts led to the development of ‘populuxe’ items, made in a variety of materials, bought off the shelf complete with appropriate messages, then personalized with initials and inscriptions. One range, thought to come from a workshop operating between 1670 and 1710, was made of cedar and horn. Each one was inlaid with interchangeable, inscribed kidney-shaped bone sections, which could be used to create ‘posies’, or rhymes. Other models were made from brass or horn and bone.
Like alcohol, tobacco developed its own literary presence. There were numerous celebrity smokers, including the philosopher Thomas Hobbes and the scientist Isaac Newton, while literary figures argued that smoking helped creativity and study.
During the herald’s visitation of London in 1687, some men brought silver tobacco boxes as evidence of their family’s standing: ‘Mr. Martin Morland, nephew to Sir Samuel, exhibited the arms here described, graved on a silver tobacco box, which arms were given to his father as his coat by Sir Samuel Morland his brother.’
As well as personal coats of arms (valid or not), boxes were ideal for the display of royal arms or portraits that conveyed publicly a smoker’s allegiances. To facilitate ‘loyal’ smoking, the print maker Peter Stent sold small prints of royalty and other nobility ‘for to adorn tobacco boxes, much in use’. An example of just such a box, in celebration of Charles II’s coronation in 1661, shows signs of having been well used by its owner. [A picture of this promotional item with Charles II's picture on it is shown]
"Tobacco was another home-grown stimulant: in 1655, it was cultivated and sold in 14 English and Welsh counties. ... a comforting pipe of English tobacco could not be enjoyed legally, as Cromwell’s government clamped down on the trade and insisted that all tobacco should be the duty-heavy variety imported from the colonies." https://thehistoryofparliament.wo…
And in 1660 Parliament tries again to make tobacco a revenue-producing import, but clearly it was easy to grow at home and hid from the tax collector.
"Tobacco was another home-grown stimulant: in 1655, it was cultivated and sold in 14 English and Welsh counties. ... a comforting pipe of English tobacco could not be enjoyed legally, as Cromwell’s government clamped down on the trade and insisted that all tobacco should be the duty-heavy variety imported from the colonies." https://thehistoryofparliament.wo…
And in 1660 Parliament tries again to make tobacco a revenue-producing import, but clearly it was easy to grow at home and hid from the tax collector.
12 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
tobacco
1.Any of various plants of the genus Nicotiana, especially N. tabacum, native to tropical America and widely cultivated for their leaves, which are used primarily for smoking. 2. The leaves of these plants, dried and processed chiefly for use in cigarettes, cigars, or snuff or for smoking in pipes. 3. Products made from these plants. 4. The habit of smoking tobacco: I gave up tobacco. 5. A crop of tobacco.
ETYMOLOGY: Spanish tabaco, possibly of Caribbean origin.
The American Heritage
dirk • Link
King James I wrote a (very short) book...
"And surely in my opinion, there cannot be a more base, and yet hurtfull corruption in a Countrey, then is the vile vse (or other abuse) of taking Tobacco in this Kingdome, which hath moued me, shortly to discouer the abuses thereof in this following little Pamphlet."
"A Covnter-Blaste To Tobacco", by King James I, 1604.
Full HTML version online:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17…
CGS • Link
Nice piece, took 400 years to be heard. James I. be wise un, they told him his income be short if they listened to his wise words.
CGS • Link
"King James I bans domestic cultivation of tobacco ?' There were many attemps to grow this delightful weed, for it doth grow well in UK., but the problem be in drying it before a nice mold would rot it away.
Hops be easier.
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
A contemporary view of life in London is offered by Cosmo, the future Grand Duke of Turin, who visited England in the Spring of 1669.
"It is a common custom with the lower order of people rather than with the nobility, who are less given to it, after dinner or at public houses, when they are transacting business of any kind, to take tobacco, and smoke, so that there does not pass a day in which the artisans do not indulge themselves in going to the public-houses, which are exceedingly numerous, neglecting their work, however urgent it may be; hence it is that the French make fortunes in London, for, being more attentive to their business, they sell their manufactures at a lower price than the English, who would fain derive the same profits as other artisans, however little they work."
@@@
From:
TRAVELS OF COSMO THE THIRD, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY,
THROUGH ENGLAND,
DURING THE REIGN OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND (1669)
page 398
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN MANUSCRIPT
https://archive.org/stream/travel…
His highness, Cosmo, must be considered only as a traveler. Under his direction, the narrator of the records was Count Lorenzo Magalotti, afterwards Secretary to the Academy del Cimento, and one of the most learned and eminent characters of the court of Ferdinand II.
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Angela McShane, Senior Research Fellow and Head of Renaissance and Early Modern Studies at the Victoria & Albert Museum, has written about the use of snuff and tobacco at
https://www.historytoday.com/arch…
A few highlights:
British men and women of all classes consumed tobacco in increasing quantities from the late 16th century onwards. Imported from the ‘New World’, by the middle of the 17th century the tobacco plant was being grown commercially in Europe, as well as in slave-worked plantations in the Americas. The addictive product was profitable, its trade was monopolistic and rife with crime and controversy.
Debates raged in the press over its effects, while government dependence on the profits it generated had political implications. Attempts to undercut the American trade by establishing plantations in England led to riots and armed suppression, while the taxing of tobacco without parliamentary approval was one of the many crimes visited on King Charles’ unfortunate head.
In his “Counterblaste to Tobacco”, published in 1604, King James complained that elite men found life as a non-smoker socially difficult:
“Divers men very sound both in judgement, and complexion, have bene at last forced to take it [tobacco] also without desire, partly because they were ashamed to seeme singular.”
By writing his pamphlet, King James sought to discourage smoking, warning, among other things, that it caused cancer.
A decade later, the chronicler Edmund Howes wrote: ‘At this day, [tobacco is] commonly used by most men and many women.’
King James did not give up on his campaign. In 1619 a proclamation attempted to ban smoking from alehouses, while in the 1620s high taxes were imposed to make the commodity prohibitively expensive.
Yet by the 1630s tobacco was too valuable for the government to constrain. Key figures in Parliament developed interests in overseas plantations, while the customs and excise duties it brought in were substantial. Smoking became de rigeur at every level of society, in inns, alehouses and shops, in private and in the streets (from which, in the 1670s, the Norwich authorities unsuccessfully sought to ban it).
The essentials of smoking – a clay pipe, a light and tobacco – could be obtained in an alehouse, tavern or coffee house. But tobacco ranged hugely in quality – a constant subject for debate in company – and nothing could compare to the comfort of having an ounce or two of one’s own favorite blend to hand.
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
Personal tobacco boxes soon became indispensable to the British smoker. They are noted in printed literature from as early as 1607, in documentary sources from the 1620s and, later, in wills and inventories. By 1649 their ubiquity had increased to such an extent that Charles Hoole thought it necessary to adapt his best-selling “Easie entrance to the Latin tongue” by offering Latin translations for ‘tobacco pipe’, ‘stopper’ and ‘box’.
By 1700 a personalized box for snuff or tobacco had become a vital accessory for any man, whether a laborer or a lord.
Smoking and snuffing involved an elaborate, ritual choreography of objects, gestures and discourses that evoked a gamut of emotions ranging from frustration to satisfaction. When performed in company, as they often were, these rituals involved etiquettes of sharing and borrowing. One comedy drama laid out the precise actions of the smoking ritual, as if they were a military operation. It was to be exercised ‘till you stink, defile the room, offend your friends, destroy your liver and Lungs, and bid adieu to the world with a scowling flux’.
In 1623 Endymion Porter was in Spain with Prince Charles’ marriage embassy with George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. He wrote to his wife that he ‘sent my Ladie Villiers a tobackco box, I hope shee will esteeme it as a token of my love’.
... we cannot be certain these women used the boxes themselves – the former may have been a curiosity for a collection, ... – but both were clearly used as receptacles for affection. Although elite women are often described as having their own snuff-boxes, no tobacco box has come to light that specifically names an English woman as owner. However, the use of heart decorations and affectionate inscriptions on tobacco boxes in which initials, rather than names, appear suggests that they were popular gifts for young ladies to give to young men and, perhaps, the other way round.
The increasing demand for such gifts led to the development of ‘populuxe’ items, made in a variety of materials, bought off the shelf complete with appropriate messages, then personalized with initials and inscriptions. One range, thought to come from a workshop operating between 1670 and 1710, was made of cedar and horn. Each one was inlaid with interchangeable, inscribed kidney-shaped bone sections, which could be used to create ‘posies’, or rhymes. Other models were made from brass or horn and bone.
San Diego Sarah • Link
part 3
Like alcohol, tobacco developed its own literary presence.
There were numerous celebrity smokers, including the philosopher Thomas Hobbes and the scientist Isaac Newton, while literary figures argued that smoking helped creativity and study.
During the herald’s visitation of London in 1687, some men brought silver tobacco boxes as evidence of their family’s standing: ‘Mr. Martin Morland, nephew to Sir Samuel, exhibited the arms here described, graved on a silver tobacco box, which arms were given to his father as his coat by Sir Samuel Morland his brother.’
As well as personal coats of arms (valid or not), boxes were ideal for the display of royal arms or portraits that conveyed publicly a smoker’s allegiances. To facilitate ‘loyal’ smoking, the print maker Peter Stent sold small prints of royalty and other nobility ‘for to adorn tobacco boxes, much in use’.
An example of just such a box, in celebration of Charles II’s coronation in 1661, shows signs of having been well used by its owner.
[A picture of this promotional item with Charles II's picture on it is shown]
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Tobacco was another home-grown stimulant: in 1655, it was cultivated and sold in 14 English and Welsh counties. ... a comforting pipe of English tobacco could not be enjoyed legally, as Cromwell’s government clamped down on the trade and insisted that all tobacco should be the duty-heavy variety imported from the colonies."
https://thehistoryofparliament.wo…
And in 1660 Parliament tries again to make tobacco a revenue-producing import, but clearly it was easy to grow at home and hid from the tax collector.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Tobacco was another home-grown stimulant: in 1655, it was cultivated and sold in 14 English and Welsh counties. ... a comforting pipe of English tobacco could not be enjoyed legally, as Cromwell’s government clamped down on the trade and insisted that all tobacco should be the duty-heavy variety imported from the colonies."
https://thehistoryofparliament.wo…
And in 1660 Parliament tries again to make tobacco a revenue-producing import, but clearly it was easy to grow at home and hid from the tax collector.
San Diego Sarah • Link
We had a long discussion about the use of tobacco starting at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
San Diego Sarah • Link
Apparently tobacco was grown at Winchcombe, Gloucs. For an explanation of the economics of why, see
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…