48 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



factures. Last year the duty paid on the leaf 

 was, as I have stated, 5,070,388/. : this sum 

 represents the enormous importation for the 

 home-supply of 33,802,000 lbs. over ; whereas 

 the quantity of cigars imported, represented by 

 150,000/. duty paid, amounts to only 3 15,750 lbs. 

 in weight, or, allowing 100 cigars to the pound (a 

 variable number), we have only 31,5 75,000 foreign 

 cigars imported. A little arithmetic will put the 

 question beyond a doubt. Let us assume that 

 this number of foreign cigars were actually sold 

 last year. If we divide those figures by 313, the 

 number of week-days in the year, we have the 

 quotient 100,878 — the number of foreign cigars 

 sold per day— which we may certainly assume 

 for the argument, admitting the total to have 

 been imported. Now, there are 1569 tobacconist- 

 retailers in London alone. Taking this number 

 as a divisor to the daily sale of 100,878, we get 

 only 64 foreign cigars to represent the retail- trade 

 in that article, as the daily sale of each. But the 

 divisor must have very large additions to it for 

 all the towns of England, Ireland, and Scotland, 

 all which have their tobacconists, who profess to 



