322 CULTURE, MANUFACTURE, ETC., OF TOBACCO. 



from the United States in three years, will make it 

 clearer : — 



Duties. Drawbacks, 



dols. cents. dols. cents. 



1793 898 26 444 49 



1794 1890 16 272 59 



1795 4255 4 18 59 



The increase of the tobacco -trade in France, has 

 been thus narrated by Mr. Steinmetz, in his agreeable 

 little volume on Tobacco : "No law was passed against 

 tobacco ; but a duty was imposed upon it, extremely 

 small at first, and this lasted to the year 1673 ; but in 

 1674 the habit of snuffing and smoking becoming more 

 and more popular, the government of Louis XIV. 

 increased the duty, and converted the cultivation into 

 a monopoly. This was conceded to a speculator for 

 six years, in consideration of the payment of 700,000 

 francs, in three instalments ; the enormous sum of 

 more than £29,000 sterling. In 1720 the considera- 

 tion for the monopoly was more than doubled; in 

 1771 it was nearly quadrupled, amounting to about 

 £1,100,000 per annum. As the consumption of tobacco 

 continued to increase, the government took upon 

 itself the entire monopoly, under the name of Regie ; 

 and some idea may be formed of the enormous increase 

 in the consumption of tobacco, when it is stated that 

 in 1844 the revenue rose to the sum of 102,000,000 

 francs ; more than £4,000,000 sterling ; since which 

 date it has been constantly and steadily increasing, at 

 the average rate of from 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 francs 

 per annum. It is very probable that the revenue for 



