TOBACCO. 



194,694,891 



Increased attention has been latterly paid to 

 the culture of tobacco in Illinois and even in 

 some of the New England States. The follow- 

 ing statement would seem to show, that, not- 

 withstanding the vast amount of tobacco 

 raised in the Union for home consumption and 

 exportation, there is yet no reasonable ground 

 for apprehending an over-stock of the market. 

 In a letter of the Secretary of the Treasury 

 relative to the amount of home consumption 

 and exports of tobacco, with a great variety of 

 other particulars, it is stated that the whole 

 amount supplied elsewhere than in the United 

 States, is about 150,000,000 pounds; the 

 amount of possible consumption of American 

 tobacco is put at not less than 1,000,000,000 

 pounds. So that were only one-half of this 

 quantity actually consumed, it would be four 

 times more than our present export, which, in 

 value, is only second to that of cotton. 



In almost every country in Europe the most 

 vexatious restrictions in the forms of excessive 

 duties and imposts are levied upon tobacco. 

 In general, the governments, such as France, 

 Spain, Italy, &c., take possession of all the 

 tobacco imported or raised, and farm or let out 

 to great capitalists for immense sums, the pri- 

 vileges of vending to manufacturers and re- 

 tailers. In this way the cost of tobacco in 

 Europe is usually extremely high, and govern- 

 ments manage to derive from their subjects 

 vast sums of money by exactions in the shape 

 of imposts upon the tobacco they consume. 

 In France, the revenue thus annually derived, 

 is $10,000,000, and all this from a reduced im- 

 portation of some 6000 or 7000 hogsheads. It 

 would indeed seem to be a favourite object for 

 excessive taxation in nearly every government. 

 At a great meeting of tobacco planters held in 

 May, 1840, it was shown from authentic docu- 

 ments, that on an export of 100,000 hogsheads, 

 valued here at $7,000,000, a duty was paid by 

 the consumers in the various countries of Eu- 

 rope, of more than $30,000,000. "As a matter 

 of interest to many of our readers," says the 

 editor of the Cultivator, " we copy or condense 

 1044 



TOBACCO. 



from the report of that body, the amount of 

 tobacco exported to the European countries 

 respectively, or the most prominent ones : 



Tax per Ib. 



Countries. 

 Russia 

 Holland - 

 Belgium - 

 Great Britain 

 France 

 Spain 



Portugal - 

 Italian States 

 Austria 



Eiport of Tobacco in hhd*. 

 358 



- 3,300 



- 6,000 



- 28,772 



- 12,000 



- 5,700 



363 



- 2,000 



- 4,000 



13 cts. 

 24 " J 

 72$ " 



The remainder of the 100,000 hogsheads is 

 distributed through the German States, Sardi- 

 nia, Hungary, &c. &c. We have been unable 

 to ascertain the precise duties paid in all cases, 

 but the enormous rates of those ascertained, 

 and the fact that the tobacco import is in most 

 of the countries of Europe farmed out for a 

 stipulated sum, renders it certain, that while 

 none are below what is here named, some of 

 the highest much exceed the almost prohibitory 

 imposts of Great Britain. A duty of 800 per 

 cent., such as England imposes on our tobacco, 

 is an anomaly in the history of trade; and 

 which, under all circumstances, may be deemed 

 positively unjust." This excessive duty, how- 

 ever, is imposed merely for revenue purposes, 

 not for protection to agriculture, like the duty 

 on wheat ; as, excepting a few plants for pri- 

 vate use, for medicinal purposes, &c., it is pro- 

 hibited to be grown. 



"The culture of tobacco is every year ex- 

 tending itself in the Western States, and pro- 

 mises to become a most important article of 

 export from the rich districts north and south 

 of the Ohioi That tobacco can be grown in 

 Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, with 

 a profit greater than that attending the culture 

 of wheat and corn, seems certain; and we 

 doubt not, that as the cultivation progresses, 

 and the better methods of curing are adopted, 

 the tobacco of the new States will rival in qua- 

 lity and celebrity that of the old. The plants 

 on new land grow more luxuriantly than on 

 soils cultivated for any considerable time ; but 

 experience proves that the quality is not so 

 fine. The best tobacco in any country is 

 grown on lands in good condition, but not ex- 

 travagantly rich, or highly manured." 



Many facts connected with the history of the 

 first production and exportation of tobacco in 

 America are highly interesting. Some of these 

 were collected by an intelligent investigator 

 a few years ago, from which we extract the 

 following. In a letter still extant, of the Go- 

 vernor and Council of Virginia, dated James' 

 City, January 20, 1622, it is stated, that there 

 was not then above 60,000 Ibs. of tobacco made 

 in the colony. In 1639, however, only 17 

 years afterwards, the Grand Assembly passed 

 a law which recites, that, " Whereas, the ex- 

 cessive quantity of tobacco of late years 

 planted in the colony, has debased the quality," 

 and enacts, " that all the tobacco planted this 

 present year, and the two succeeding years, in 

 the colony of Virginia, be absolutely destroyed 

 and burned, excepting and reserving so much 

 in equal proportion to each planter, as shall 

 make in the whole just the quantity of 120,000 

 Ibs. of tobacco, stripped and smoothed, <Scc. In 

 consideration whereof, the creditors of the 



