Archaeological evidence suggests that indigenous Americans used tobacco for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. In addition to ceremonial uses, they also used tobacco as a trade good and an ingredient in medicines. Various tribes used it to treat different conditions, including toothaches, ear infections, colds, and, oddly enough, breathing ailments.
Worldwide Adoption
Europeans initially sailed west with dreams of securing unfettered access to the wealth of the Asian spice trade. When they realized their failure, their greed drove them to loot and ravage the indigenous civilizations. Gold and silver weren’t the only goods shipped across the Atlantic. In the early 16th century, the Spanish introduced tobacco to Europe. Decades later, they brought it to the Ottoman Empire. The Portuguese did the same for Japan. Primarily spread by European colonization, but also secondarily by adjacent cultures, tobacco use rapidly swept the globe.
Resistance
Not everyone accepted tobacco’s rising popularity. In 1633, smoking was banned throughout the Ottoman Empire. A year later, Russia limited tobacco use to foreigners in Moscow. James I of England detested smoking. While he didn’t ban it, he increased import duties 40-fold, but tobacco use continued to grow. After 20 years, he admitted defeat and cashed in with the creation of a royal monopoly. Peter the Great of Russia and the Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim (the Mad) also lifted their bans in favor of taxation.
Cash Crop & the Slave Trade
Demand for tobacco changed the agricultural dynamics of Britain’s American colonies from subsistence farming to cash crop cultivation. While this enhanced the economic status of the colonists, it did so at a horrific cost. Tobacco farming is a labor-intensive enterprise. Initially, farmers recruited indentured servants to perform the work. At the end of their tenure, these workers received land. As Tobacco’s success drove up the value of land, plantation owners replaced indentured servants with slaves, fueling the atrocities of the Atlantic slave trade.
Mass Production & Social Acceptance
The end of slavery didn’t spell the end for tobacco. The spread of the Industrial Revolution enabled large-scale commercial production of tobacco products. Lower prices brought cigarettes and cigars to the masses. Smoking tobacco became socially acceptable for both men and women. Its popularity generated even more money. Before we had an income tax, tobacco excise taxes delivered as much as a third of the money collected by the Internal Revenue Service. By the mid-20th century, smoking rates for US adults reached nearly 50%.
Health Impacts & New Strategies
Even as smoking rates peaked, researchers knew that using tobacco significantly increased risks for severe diseases. A partial list includes many cancers (lung, oral, throat, etc.), heart disease, strokes, and numerous breathing disorders. The overpowering evidence drove governments to eventually act. Initial actions focused on informing potential users via public service announcements and warning labels on tobacco products. Eventually, things ended up in court. In the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement of 1998, the companies agreed to curtail advertising, fund anti-smoking initiatives, and pay annual indemnities to the states in perpetuity. Those indemnities totaled ~$26.7B in 2023.
Where’s the Map?
States continue to levy significant taxes on cigarettes, but there’s a very wide range. For example, Missouri collects 17¢ per pack, while New York and Connecticut charge $4.35 per pack. Economics 101 tells us that someone will take advantage of this difference. That brings us to our featured map courtesy of Taxfoundation.org.
Basically cigarettes are smuggled out of reddish states and into greenish states. The deeper the color, the greater the economic impact. You can visit the taxfoundation article for more details.
As always thanks for reading.
Armen
Note to pay the bills
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