CHAPTER XII 



SMOKE STATISTICS 



Duty on tobacco under Elizabeth — Under James I. — Increasing 

 imports from Virginia — Restriction on the colony's trade — 

 Consumption in eighteenth century — Effect of War of Inde- 

 pendence — Consumption in 1791 — Rise and fall of duty this 

 century — Present rates — Drawbacks — High duty — Big sums 

 paid — Increase of consumption, table of — Revenue from 

 tobacco — Annual consumption in United Kingdom — Value 

 and varieties of tobacco — Britain's annual smoke bill — 

 Tobacco a world-wide supporter of Government — Conti- 

 nental monopolies — In France — World's crop and sources 

 of tobacco — European culture — World's consumption — 

 Amount per head per annum in European countries. 



'The practice of smoking,' wrote a seventeenth- 

 century commentator, ' is like Elias's cloud, which was 

 no bigger than a man's hand, that hath suddenly- 

 covered the face of the earth.' Certain it is that no 

 habit has leapt into such immediate and universal use. 

 The devotion of all countries and nations is abundantly 

 proved by those cold enemies of enthusiasm and 

 firm friends of fact — statistics. 



From the day of its introduction into Europe tobacco 

 has been the firm supporter of constitutional govern- 

 ment by the revenues accruing from the charges upon 

 it. Under Elizabeth an import duty of 2d. a pound 



