122 A GOVERNMENT MONOPOLY. 
For their nectar and ambrosia. 
It is not the smack 
Of ale or of sack, 
That can with tobacco compare: 
For taste and for smell, 
It beares away the bell 
From them both, wherever they are: 
For all their bravado, 
It is Trinidado, 
That both their noses will wipe 
Of the praises they desire, 
Unless they conspire 
To sing to the tune of his pipe. 
The history of the rise and progress of tobacco in England, 
is one of the most interesting features connected with the 
use and cultivation of the plant. In Spain, Portugal, 
Germany and Holland the plant was sustained and encour- 
aged by the throne, and royalty was the strongest and most 
devoted defender it had. It saw in the encouragement 
of its use, an income of revenue and a source of profit far 
greater than that received from any other product. Soon 
after its cultivation began in France, Spain, and Portugal, 
the tobacco trade was farmed out. 
From its first cultivation in these countries it has been a 
government monopoly. In 1753, the King of Portugal 
farmed out the tobacco trade, and from that time until now, 
the annual amount received has been one of the principal 
sources of revenue to the crown. In France, as early as 
1674, a monopoly of the trade was granted to Jean Breton 
for six years, for the sum of 700,000 francs. 
In 1720 the Indian Company paid for the privilege 
1,500,000 francs per annum; and in 1771 the price was 
increased to 25,000,000 francs. Besides France there are 
thirteen other Eurovean states where the tobacco trade is a 
government monopoly, namely, Austria, Spain, Sicily, Sar- 
dinia, Poland, Papal States, Portugal, Tuscany, Modena, 
Parma, San Marino, Lichtenstein. 
* From the first cultivation of the plant, its growers saw in 
the tobacco trade a vast and constantly increasing source of 
