A LECTURE ON TOBACCO. 5 I 



of common tobacco is 3s. 6d. The original cost when 

 imported is about 6d., making four shiUings, — but this is 

 the retail' price of the common sort, apparently leaving 

 no profit to the manufacturers and venders ; but the 

 weight is greatly increased in the process of manufacture.-^ 

 Taking this into account, and also the great quantity 

 smuggled, it is supposed that 75,000,000 lbs. are sold, 

 making 2 lbs. 2 oz. on an average ; and reckoning the 

 cost of cigars and the more expensive tobaccos, pipes, 

 meerchaums, &c., los. a head will be under the mark. 

 This would make for Bridport about ;,{^3,400 a year. 

 Even if we said ;^i,ooo, it would be a very large sum for 

 a town which is complaining of its poverty, and where 

 there is such a difficulty in raising ^300 a year for educa- 

 tion. Smoking is by no means so expensive a habit as 

 drinking, but it wastes a great deal of money as well as 



or 1334^ oz. per head. The maximum was in 1877, before the in- 

 crease of the duty, viz., 50,775,032 lbs., or I lb. 8 oz. per head. 

 From the Customs' Returns in 1880-81 it appears that there were 

 imported 47,968,448 lbs. of unmanufactured tobacco at 3s. 6d. a 

 pound duty ; manufactured tobacco (including " home " in bond), 

 at 4s. 4d. to 4s. lod. duty, 156,951 lbs ; cigars, at 5s. 6d., 1,122,325 

 lbs.; snuff, at 4s. id. to 4s. lod., 310 lbs.; free for agricultural 

 purposes, 75,154 lbs. ; total, 49,323,188 lbs. 426,856 lbs. were ad- 

 mitted free for manufacture in bond ; while yjS'1^7 ^^^- o^ snuff and 

 103, 785 lbs. of manufactured tobacco were exported on drawback. 

 1 The "Journal of the Statistical Society" (September, 1872) 

 reckoned the increase at 58 per cent. ("Narcotism," No. 36.) If 

 2,^ per cent, is reckoned for moistening, 25 per cent, is added for 

 adulteration (" Narcotism," No. 26). The Inland Revenue Report 

 (Appendix, p. xxiv.) states that in 1879, out of 276 samples exam- 

 ined, 136 were adulterated ; in 1880, out of 148 examined, only 

 53 were adulterated ; these were mostly smuggled. In only one 

 manufactory was there any evidence of adulteration. The leaf is 

 twopence or threepence below its normal price. 



