Tobacco's World Triumph 41 



tobacco in France, Italy and elsewhere have survived 

 save that of ' nicotine.' As if perceiving its solid worth, 

 the world returned to ' tabaco,' the name under 

 which Hernandez introduced the plant into Europe. 

 The Spaniards have retained this word in its truth 

 and purity of spelling. The Portuguese and Italians 

 erroneously added an extra c, and they spell it 

 ' tabacco.' The French have shortened it to ' tabac '; 

 the Germans, Dutch and Russians spell it ' tabak,' 

 while Poles phonetically preserve the original spell- 

 ing in ' tabaka.' In English the first vowel has been 

 wrongly altered, o being substituted for a — ' tobacco.' 

 The Danes and Swedes follow suit with ' tobak.' 

 'Bakah ' is the root of the name all over the world. 

 In Hindustani it is ' tumbaku,' and in Malayese 

 ' tambracco.' 



Until the present century tobacco was snuffed, not 

 smoked, in France. Under Louis XIV. both smoking 

 and snufiSng increased in popular favour, the former 

 being almost entirely confined to the lower classes. 

 Until the middle of this century snuff was the only 

 mode of taking tobacco practised by French gentle- 

 men. In the days of the Regency snuff-taking 

 attained its zenith in France, and was an accomplish- 

 ment indispensable to all moving in society. The 

 nicotian history of France thus largely falls under the 

 heading of ' Snuff,' and is treated in a later chapter. 

 In 1674 the cultivation and sale of tobacco in France 

 became a State monopoly. It was farmed out to a 

 speculator for ;^S,ooo a year for six years. By 1720 

 the annual rent of the monopoly had risen to ^10,000. 

 In 1 77 1 tobacco yielded France a revenue of 



