Course:History 344 Nasty Families/Pastimes/Tobacco

Tobacco was originally discovered by those exploring the Americas, and eventually was brought back to Europe with the explorers upon their voyage home. However England did not start using tobacco until the late sixteenth century, when captains arrived back from exploring the West Indies (1). Similarly to many other countries, once tobacco was made available its popularity greatly grew. Unfortunately, not all were impressed by the popularity of tobacco smoking; one who was very much against it was King James I. King James I may be the first person of authority to speak against smoking and recognize the health hazard (2).

Another problem that occurred with the continuing use of tobacco was the need to import more, which at the time was being imported by Spain (3). This would change in the early to mid-seventeenth century when the English colonies would begin to grow tobacco. The colony of Virginia was the first colony that was found to be suitable for growing tobacco that was as high of quality as that being imported from Spain (4). Tobacco would be a very profitable market to be in as when it first arrived to England prices were quite high due to its growing demand and difficulty to supply. One could get involved in the marketing of tobacco if they were involved in charter companies and lived near a port. An example to show the popularity of tobacco in the later part of the Seventeenth century is that in the late 1680s approximately 36, 350, 000 pounds were imported in a year (5).

(1) William A. McKim. Drugs and Behavior: An Introduction to Behavioural Pharmacology. (New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2007), 199. (2) McKim, 200. (3) McKim, 200. (4) McKim, 200. (5) Robert C. Nash. “The English and Scottish Tobacco Trades in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Legal and Illegal Trade”, Economic History Review 35, no. 3 (1982): 355. Accessed on March 26, 2012. URL: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/ehost/detail?vid=7&hid=18&sid=0dc64da1-0234-40bb-bdb8-aa530cabe408%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=10147852.