A Counterblaste To Tobacco, written by King James I of England, is one of the earliest pieces of anti-tobacco literature and one of the most famous attacks on tobacco of all time. King James I took the English throne in 1603 and published his Counterblaste anonymously in 1604. His authorship became completely known in 1616. He was no fan of tobacco, and he made it clear in two major ways. First, by raising taxes on tobacco. At the beginning of James’ reign, tobacco was taxed at two pence per pound. He increased the duty to six shillings and ten pence per pound.1 Second, by printing A Counterblaste To Tobacco. His written attacks were zealous and heated.
These are the arguments he made against tobacco:
- Tobacco was first found to be in use among the natives of America. James found them to be un-Christian people who “deny God and adore the Devil.” He asked, ”And now good countrymen let us consider, what honour or policy can move us to imitate the barbarous and beastly manners of the wild, godless, and slavish Indians?”
- Sir Walter Raleigh is not named directly in the pamphlet, but is alluded to strongly as the man who popularized tobacco in England. Anyone reading it at the time would have understood who James referred to when he said tobacco was “brought in by a father so generally hated”. James disliked Raleigh immensely, so tobacco’s connection with Raleigh damned the plant in his eyes.
- Those who say tobacco is healthy are wrong. The medical theories of the day held that “the brains of all men, being naturally cold and wet, all dry and hot things should be good for them; of which nature this stinking suffumigation is, and therefore of good use for them.” James counters that they are thinking of it all wrong, and that “this stinking smoke being sucked up by the nose, and imprisoned in the cold and moist brains, is by their cold and wet faculty, turned and cast forth again in watery distillations, and so you are made free and purged of nothing.” Medicine was a little different back then.
- He made another medical point, this one with more merit: those who said tobacco cured their diseases probably took tobacco when they were quite sick. Many people get better from certain diseases naturally over time. So it wasn’t the tobacco that healed anyone – it was their bodies fighting off the disease. They just happened to take tobacco when they were sick. In other words, tobacco was correlated to their improvement, but not causal.
- In a final medical argument, James questioned any medicine that was supposed to cure every single disease; the concept that one plant could cure everything didn’t make sense because there were so many different types of diseases that acted in different ways. He also questioned why, if tobacco was medicinal, it was used recreationally by people who weren’t sick.
- James was also concerned about users’ mortal souls. He accused tobacco users of being guilty of a variety of sins: lust for the plant, drunkenness (or something similar) when using it, and the failure of tobacco addicts to be ready and able to keep the kingdom safe.
- The costs of using tobacco were high, and that money could be spent on something upright to improve a person.
After all of these arguments, he wraps up with the most famous quotation from the Counterblaste:
“Have you not reason then to be ashamed, and to forbeare this filthie noveltie, so basely grounded, so foolishly received and so grossely mistaken in the right use thereof? In your abuse thereof sinning against God, harming yourselves both in persons and goods, and taking also thereby the markes and notes of vanitie upon you: by the custome thereof making your selves to be wondered at by all forraine civil Nations, and by all strangers that come among you, to be scorned and condemned. A custome lothsome to the eye, hateful to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and the black stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse.”2
This is an important work in the history of tobacco. Despite its age, it’s surprisingly easy for a modern reader to understand. Some of James’ arguments seem a little silly or bizarre now, but some have held up reasonably well over time. Overall, James pushed a bit too far and bit off more than he could chew with what he was saying in this book. But he certainly left his imprint on the discourse about tobacco, and also the taxes and revenue that could be generated from it.
A Counterblaste to Tobacco is in the public domain and can be read for free on Google Books.