122 A GOVERNMENT MONOPOLY. 



For their nectar and ambrosia. 



It is not the smack 



Of ale or of sack, 

 That can with tobacco compare : 



For taste and for smell, 



It beares away the bell 

 From them both, wherever they are : 



For all their bravado, 



It is Trinidado, 

 That both their noses will wipe 



Of the praises they desire, 



Unless they conspire 

 To sing to the tune of his pipe. 



The history of the rise and progress of tobacco in England, 

 is one of the most interesting features connected with the 

 use and cultivation of the plant. In Spain, Portugal, 

 Germany and Holland the plant was sustained and encour- 

 aged by the throne, and royalty was the strongest and most 

 devoted defender it had. It saw in the encouragement 

 of its use, an income of revenue and a source of profit far 

 greater than that received from any other product. Soon 

 after its cultivation began in France, Spain, and Portugal, 

 the tobacco trade was farmed out. 



From its first cultivation in these countries it has been a 

 government monopoly. In 1753, the King of Portugal 

 farmed out the tobacco trade, and from that time until now, 

 the annual amount received has been one of the principal 

 sources of revenue to the crown. In France, as early as 

 1674, a monopoly of the trade was granted to Jean Breton 

 for six years, for the sum of 700,000 francs. 



In 1720 the Indian Company paid for the privilege 

 1,500,000 francs per annum; and in 1771 the price was 

 increased to 25,000,000 francs. Besides France there are 

 thirteen other European states where the tobacco trade is a 

 government monopoly, namely, Austria, Spain, Sicily, Sar- 

 dinia, Poland, Papal States, Portugal, Tuscany, Modena, 

 Parma, San Marino, Lichtenstein. 



From the first cultivation of the plant, its growers saw in 

 the tobacco trade a vast and constantly increasing source of 



