Tobacco, From the Grower to the Smoker is a 1912 book by Arthur Edmund Tanner that focuses on tobacco in the United Kingdom. Tanner’s goal with the book was, “to make the subject so complete and reliable as to be an aid to all members of the trade, to statesmen, statisticians, students, and the public generally.”1 The book covers the history of tobacco in the UK, cultivation of the plant, how curing works, the bonding system, British cigars, other types of tobacco, statistics and regulation, and the smuggling of tobacco.

Image of the tobacco plant from Tobacco, From the Grower to the Smoker
Image of the tobacco plant from Tobacco, From the Grower to the Smoker

Tanner places the introduction of tobacco into Europe between 1560 and 1565, with Ralph Lane (the Governor of the Virginia Colony) and Sir John Hawkins. Lane, along with Sir Walter Raleigh, were responsible for the popularization and spread of smoking tobacco, which they called “perfuming” or “drinking.”2 Tanner covers James I’s attacks on tobacco in his Counterblaste and the rising taxes on tobacco during his reign. The story of tobacco then taking hold in England is told quickly in this book. After it took hold, the story of tobacco in England became a story of regulation and taxation – changes to regulations and taxes changed the fate of the plant in a variety of ways at a variety of times. Sometimes it could be grown in certain places, other times not. The tax situation frequently made smuggling tobacco incredibly profitable. When regulation and taxes made it hard to find tobacco, adulterating it by adding all kinds of ingredients became a problem.

The book goes into the cultivation and harvesting of the plant, noting, “To produce the tobacco leaf of commerce requires eighteen months of unremitting labour and attention.”3 Once the tobacco is grown, only half the battle is over – “The most trying time is during the curing process.”4 Tanner reviews the fermentation/sweating process of leaves, and also the process of sun curing.

Of cigars in England, Tanner writes, “There seems to be no evidence of cigar manufacturing in England prior to the nineteenth century, and the trade was but a small one until about 1840 when a rapid increase in the production took place, and the industry began to flourish, so that by 1851 several British cigar manufacturers were included in the list of exhibitors in the great exhibition.”5 There were two classes of British cigars at that time: hand-made and mold-made (made using a cigar mold). Molds allowed less-skilled cigar makers to make consistent cigars, though the hand-made cigars were thought to be better.

There are many stories for the origin of cigar bands, and Tobacco, From the Grower to the Smoker includes the story of a predecessor to the cigar band that I hadn’t read anywhere else: “The difficulty of identifying a cigar away from its box led to some manufacturers gumming a small ‘ticket’ or star of coloured paper with the name of the brand on each cigar, but as it was found difficult to remove these ‘tickets’ without damaging the cigar, or to smoke the cigar beyond the ‘ticket’ without spoiling the flavour, the ‘ticket’ was replaced by a paper ‘ring’ or ‘band’ as now used.”6

The United Kingdom imported the vast majority of its tobacco from the United States, even up through 1911 (right before this book was published). Over 104,000,000 pounds of tobacco came to England from the United States, and only around 14,000,000 pounds from everywhere else combined. And though England made many cigars, few were exported. Tanner tells us why: “The cigar is the aristocrat of the smoking world, and generally gets aristocratic treatment in the form of the highest tariff rate. Hence its entry into foreign and colonial markets is handicapped by its additional duty price.”7

Tobacco, From the Grower to the Smoker is in the public domain and can be read for free on the Internet Archive Open Library.

  1. Arthur Edmund Tanner, Tobacco, From the Grower to the Smoker, 1912, pg. v [↩]
  2. Arthur Edmund Tanner, Tobacco, From the Grower to the Smoker, 1912, pg. 1 [↩]
  3. Arthur Edmund Tanner, Tobacco, From the Grower to the Smoker, 1912, pg. 36 [↩]
  4. Arthur Edmund Tanner, Tobacco, From the Grower to the Smoker, 1912, pg. 38 [↩]
  5. Arthur Edmund Tanner, Tobacco, From the Grower to the Smoker, 1912, pg. 51 [↩]
  6. Arthur Edmund Tanner, Tobacco, From the Grower to the Smoker, 1912, pg. 52 [↩]
  7. Arthur Edmund Tanner, Tobacco, From the Grower to the Smoker, 1912, pg. 100 [↩]