Through the study of the growth environment, the entry of tobacco into Europe, the Britishization of tobacco culture, and the debate on tobacco in British society, we can explore the basic face of tobacco in modern society.
Due to its American shaman's religious background, "strange" reaction to the body and easy abuse by people, tobacco has been opposed and attacked to varying degrees after entering Europe.
However, these repressions were only short-lived, and tobacco, with its unique "charm", offset the repression of opponents in various countries, and continued to enter all levels of society, and finally laid the foundation for embedding in European social culture.
The process and characteristics of tobacco spread in the UK are almost the same as those of continental Europe, but with their own cultural colors, forming the British-style tobacco smoking phenomenon, and at the same time bringing related problems, which made the rulers pay more attention.
The discussion on tobacco in the London area of England in the early 17th century made the British people better aware of the impact of tobacco smoking on people's bodies and social culture, and to a certain extent, provided a reference for the subsequent regulation of British rulers and their governments.
In modern times, Britain has formed two tobacco-growing areas, the mainland and overseas, one in the mainland where the government tried to prevent cultivation, and the other in colonial cultivation areas that were initially opposed, then acquiesced, and finally restricted. The central government has developed different policy regulations for the two regions.
So, why there are two different regulatory policies, which historical conditions prompted British rulers to pay attention to tobacco cultivation, what regulatory policies the British government will promulgate, and how to implement them, the author will discuss these issues next.
There are many reasons that have driven the British government to start regulating tobacco cultivation, mainly including a series of economic and social problems arising from the indigenous private cultivation of tobacco, and the problems caused by the disorderly expansion of tobacco cultivation in the colonies.
Specifically, the main problems of the indigenous population are: the rulers considered tobacco grown in the native environment to be harmful to the body, occupied the cultivated land of food crops and indirectly led to higher food prices, seized the colonial tobacco market, and most importantly, led to the reduction of import tariffs; The problem in the colonies was that as tobacco production continued to expand, the profits from tobacco cultivation in the colonies declined significantly, and the problem of single industry became apparent.
Many problems arising from indigenous tobacco cultivationThe price of land in England rose in the 17th century due to the price revolution, and the price of grain increased rapidly, with grain being one of the fastest rising commodities. For example, wheat grain prices were 8p per bushel of wheat in the mid-to-late 16th century, 6p for naked wheat and 8p for barley.
By the middle and late 17th century, the price of grain had multiplied several times, and on November 25, 1642, 9 shillings per bushel of wheat and 7 shillings per bushel of wheat, according to a priest of the time; From the 1st to the 16th of the following month, the price per bushel of wheat was 9 shillings, malt 4 shillings 8 pence, and nuked wheat 7 shillings 6 pence.
In order to prevent further increases in grain prices, it is necessary to limit the limited indigenous land to the cultivation of food crops. With the introduction of tobacco, and the impetus of its profits, more and more people are abandoning food crops and switching to tobacco. The price of tobacco was very high, for example, in 1615, the price of tobacco was 10 times that of pepper, and the quality of tobacco was equivalent to the same weight of silver.
Under the same conditions, a laborer earns several times more from growing tobacco than from growing wheat. It is said that tobacco cultivation began in Gloucestershire as early as 1586.
According to Didier Nurison, the British brought tobacco back from their colonies early and cultivated it on their own soil, and tobacco plantations sprang up in Winscom, Gloucestershire, in western England.
In London, for example, in 1619, tobacco was found everywhere in gardens and courtyards in Westminster and London, and a grower for sale sold it to the Netherlands.
London businessman John Stratford grew tobacco on a large scale on his family's Prescott estate based on the Dutch cultivation experience provided by his partner Henry Samos Karls.
To that end, Stratford spent £1400 a year hiring labour, and he already owned 100 acres of land when the crown banned native tobacco.
Tobacco is a typical labor-intensive industry, but also a highly profitable crop, which has been cultivated in various counties since the introduction of tobacco to the United Kingdom. In the following years, tobacco plantations in York, Lincoln, Nottingham, Worcester, Walick, Monmouth, Gloucester, and Wilt expanded rapidly, and by 1627 the native tobacco cultivation had surpassed that of the British colonies.
Tobacco cultivation has the potential to spread throughout the country. Tobacco cultivation appropriated arable land that could be used for food production on the mainland, and for this reason, James wrote to the magistrate of Middlesex County claiming that much of the land in London and Westminster that had previously been used to produce food for the poor was now rented out at high rents and then used to grow tobacco, and that the tobacco produced was harmful, so that the magistrate destroyed the tobacco.
Of course, the reasons for James I's opposition could not be so simple. In addition to this reason, the author has learned from the compilation of government documents in the UK over the years that most of their "reasons" against indigenous cultivation include the following points: long-term cultivation "will greatly damage the fertility of the land", "impact on British colonial tobacco and reduce tariffs", "attract thousands of laborers to make a living", "homegrown tobacco is harmful to the body" and other factors.
However, it is clear that the so-called reasons of these governments are superficial, and the actual reason is that homegrown tobacco affected the cultivation of tobacco in the colonies, and the impact on government finances and taxes in the process.
For example, the scholar C.M. Marconis believes that part of the reason was to prohibit domestic cultivation, allow colonial cultivation, and income tariffs during the introduction of tobacco into British soil; and partly because it supported the development of the colonies.
Scholar Immuir Wallerstein hit the nail on the head by pointing out that most countries tried to ban indigenous production in order to better regulate and tax tobacco, especially Britain and France, because it was easier to tax colonial cultivation and then ship it to London than to grow it natively. Clearly, this is driven by financial and increased intervention.
In addition, for the colonies, indigenous tobacco cultivation had a serious impact on them, so they constantly pressured the central government to adopt indigenous planting bans.
For example, in a letter to Ravel in March 1628, the governor of Virginia wrote: "I think it is best to do so by an act of parliament, although the king has banned the cultivation of tobacco natively by royal decree, which is now grown in every part of the kingdom than ever before, and the overseas plantations of England will be affected as a result."
Once the overseas plantations were destroyed, it would be impossible to grow useful and advantageous commodities or crops for England, such as flax and hemp for making rope, iron, vines, silk, and other commodities, and there was no doubt that Virginia's soil was very fertile enough to provide the British people with all kinds of products."
It can be said that the British colonies played an important role in the introduction of the native planting ban. The Virginia governor addressed the tax implications of homegrown cultivation, namely that homegrown tobacco would only result in no market for colonial tobacco
If this were the case, colonial plantation owners and adventurers would have to ship tobacco to markets in other countries, and in the long run, His Majesty's tax revenue would be greatly damaged, and Virginia's 15,000 pounds in tax revenue this year is expected to be less than half of next year.
"According to statistics, there are almost 300,000 pounds of privately grown tobacco in the UK this year, and without strong interference, more will be produced next year."
Although the private tobacco cultivation of the British mainland did bring competitiveness to the colonies every year, the words of the governor were indeed worth speculating, firstly, whether there was really so much privately grown tobacco in the mainland, and secondly, the tobacco had to be shipped to Britain for taxation before it could be shipped elsewhere (except for smuggling), and there was not necessarily so much tax loss.
However, it is clear that the colonial governor clearly had colonial interests in mind, and the more serious the problem was described, the more likely the central government was to step up its ban on indigenous cultivation.
In the early 17th century, Spanish tobacco was loved by British smokers for its good reputation, who were willing to buy it at a higher price. With the success of North American colonial tobacco trials, the improvement of processing technology and the improvement of quality, North American colonial tobacco has also been favored by British consumers.
The development of the Virginia colony was carried out in the form of a corporation, which contributed to the early development of the colony to some extent. That is, the ownership of the colony belonged to the king, who issued a charter to the colonial company (such as the Virginia Company, the West India Company, the Barbados Company) to grant the right to develop and operate the colony.
The company rented or sold the reclaimed land to large plantation owners, who later mostly became large tobacco plantation owners. In the early days of the colony, the main source of labor was immigrants, most of whom were indentured laborers who contracted with lords for four to five years, and when they completed their contracts, they could become small landowners or wage workers, later small tobacco plantation owners or workers.
Initially, Virginia did not intend to grow any cash crops within the colony, let alone tobacco production and export.
The European society's pursuit of gold and silver prompted the colonists to try gold mining in Virginia, and when this business failed, they turned to the sericulture, silk weaving, and wine industries.
In addition, they tried to produce glass, iron, asphalt, tar, turpentine, potassium and other industrial products, but in the end their efforts to call these "great causes" ended in failure.