Tobacco in History

The Cultures of Dependence

Jordan Goodman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9781134818402
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Jordan Goodman explores the historical transformation of tobacco from Amerindian shamanism to global capitalism, from the food of the spirits to the fatal epidemic, from the rough pipe and cigar to the modern-day cigarette. This scholarly and comprehensive survey combines up-to-date published work with primary research to provide a systematic way of understanding current debates from a historical perspective. Goodman draws on a wide range of disciplines to present a history that explores larger themes, such as colonialism, consumerism, medical discourse and multinational enterprise. The book reveals the complex web of dependence and relationships surrounding this controversial commodity.

1
WHAT IS TOBACCO?
The botany, chemistry and economics of a strange plant

The origins of the tobacco plant are lost. Its history starts around eight thousand years ago, when two species of the plant, Nicotiana rustica and Nicotiana tabacum, were dispersed by Amerindians through both the southern as well as the northern American continent (Wilbert 1991:179). Modern commercial tobacco is descended directly from the latter species. Until the very end of the fifteenth century no one outside the American continents had any knowledge of the cultivated varieties of this plant. Today it is grown in more than 120 countries, and its manufactured products are known to virtually everyone.

What is tobacco? An answer requires an analysis in several key areas. Tobacco exists in four principal dimensions: botany, chemistry and pharmacology, economics—production and consumption—and history. The last dimension is the main subject of this book, and the first three of this introductory chapter.

The tobacco plant is of the genus Nicotiana, one of the larger divisions of the family Solanaceae, otherwise known as nightshades. The nightshade family is one of the largest in the natural world and includes, among other plants, the potato, the pepper and, of course, the deadly nightshade (Heiser 1969). There are sixty species in the genus Nicotiana alone, 60 per cent of which are native to South America, 25 per cent to Australia and the South Pacific, and 15 per cent to North America (Goodspeed 1954:8). According to Thomas Goodspeed, the origin of the genus lies in the South American continent from where it was dispersed to all other continents, Australia included. Most authorities in the field are in broad agreement with Good-speed, though some dispute his interpretation of the intercontinental transfer of the genus (Feinhandler, Fleming and Monahon 1979). There is further agreement that of all the species in existence, only two, tabacum and rustica, have been cultivated, and it was these two that generally supplanted the wild species, in the Americas at least. By the time Europeans first sighted the New World, and long before then, Nicotiana tabacum was cultivated primarily in the tropical regions, while Nicotiana rustica could be found in many more areas, including the eastern woodlands, Mexico, Brazil and at the extremes of agricultural activity in Chile and Canada (Wilbert 1987:6).

Both tobacco species are annuals. Tabacum is a large plant between 1 and 3 metres high with large leaves; rustica is shrubby in comparison to tabacum, ranging in height from 0.5 to 1.5 metres, and produces small and fleshy leaves. Rustica is now the minor subgenus, being confined principally to only a few parts of the world—the former USSR, India, Pakistan and parts of North Africa (Akehurst 1981:34).

Tobacco is grown from seed, microscopic in size—a one ounce sample may contain as many as three hundred thousand seeds (Akehurst 1981: 48). Wherever tobacco is cultivated, the crop needs to go through certain stages before it is ready for market. There are variations but the general pattern is as follows. Since the seed is minute and the seedlings produced very fragile, they need to be raised in seedbeds before being planted in the field. Once on their own, the growing plants are generally, though not always, topped and suckered—the flowers are removed as they appear, as are the suckers that grow subsequently. At maturity the plants are harvested either by priming the leaves from the stalk or by simply cutting the plant at the stalk. Curing is the next and most distinctive stage. The basic operation involves nothing more than drying the leaves or the entire stalk to reduce the moisture content and force the leaf chemistry to produce characteristic qualities and aroma. This can be done in one of several ways under different environmental conditions: in the open air and in shade, termed air-curing; in the open air but in full sunshine, termed sun-curing; in a barn with an open smoky fire, usually of wood, termed fire-curing; and, finally, in a barn with dry heat provided by flues running through the space, termed flue-curing (Akehurst 1981:29–39).

Tobacco (except for Oriental tobacco) is now designated in two principal ways: it is classed as dark or light tobacco, according to its method of curing. Until the middle of the nineteenth century all of the world’s cultivated tobacco was air-, sun- or fire-cured and dark. Light, flue-cured tobacco became of importance only around the turn of the twentieth century but it now accounts for the bulk of the world’s output.

The tobacco plant has a general composition which can be found in most other plants. The chemistry of the leaf is straightforward: around 90 per cent is water and the rest is made up of mineral matter and organic compounds (Akehurst 1981:522). Nitrogen is the most important element and the organic compounds the most important chemicals. The proportional representation of the chemical components of tobacco varies considerably according to the type and curing method used, as well as to the region where the tobacco is cultivated (Akehurst 1981:578–604).

Nicotine is the most important nitrogenous compound in tobacco and in the smoke. It is an alkaloid, a plant substance of basic reaction, which

produces physiological changes in the body. There are other alkaloids present in tobacco such as nornicotine and anabasine, but nicotine is the primary alkaloid in both commercial varieties of tobacco, tabacum and rustica: these two varieties, importantly, have higher concentrations of nicotine than do any of the wild species (Wilbert 1987: 134–6; Akehurst 1981:543).

Tobacco smoke is chemically complex and is usually analysed in two parts, the particulate or solid and the gaseous phase. Some 4,720 separate compounds have already been identified in the smoke (Ginzel 1990:430). The gaseous phase contains many chemicals that are well known: carbon monoxide (5 per cent), carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, ammonia, formaldehyde, benzene and hydrogen cyanide; the particulate phase includes nicotine, phenol, naphthalene and cadmium among other compounds (Davis 1987:20). The compounds in the particulate phase, excepting nicotine, are collectively called tar. The higher the nicotine yield, the higher the tar yield and vice versa (Ashton and Stepney 1982:29). In the particulate phase, the free nicotine is ‘suspended on minute droplets of tar…less than one thousandth of a millimetre across…’ (Ashton and Stepney 1982:29). Tobacco smoke can also be further categorized into mainstream and sidestream smoke. About one half of the volume of the smoke is accounted for by each type. Mainstream smoke is drawn by the smoker down through the length of the cigarette and as it travels its temperature falls dramatically until it is comfortable to inhale. Sidestream smoke escapes as the cigarette burns and both the smoker and those present will inhale this smoke. As sidestream smoke is not diluted by passing through the cigarette or filter, the concentrations of chemicals in the smoke are much greater than in mainstream smoke, more than a hundred times for certain chemicals (Akehurst 1981:642, 645– 6; Ginzel 1990:433). When tobacco is not smoked, nicotine is still present but in a water-soluble salt.

There are two facts about nicotine which are now irrefutable but which, until recently, were not confirmed. They are: first, that people consume tobacco in whatever form in order to administer nicotine to themselves; and second, that nicotine is highly addictive, in the sense that ‘tobacco use is regular and compulsive, and a withdrawal syndrome usually accompanies tobacco abstinence’ (West and Grunberg 1991:486). Because cigarette smoke is acidic, the nicotine in cigarette smoke can be absorbed only by inhaling it into the lungs: the nicotine in both cigar and pipe tobacco smoke, being alkaline, can also be absorbed through the buccal mucosa, the membrane lining the mouth (Russell 1987:29). Whether tobacco smoke is acidic or alkaline depends partly on curing methods and partly on the different strains of tobacco used (Akehurst 1981:578– 604, 647, 649).

Cigarette smokers who inhale absorb 92 per cent of the nicotine available in the smoke. What happens then is graphically described in the following account:

The modern cigarette is a highly effective device for getting nicotine into the brain. The smoke is mild enough to be inhaled deeply into the alveoli of the lungs from where it is rapidly absorbed. It takes about 7 seconds for nicotine absorbed through the lungs to reach the brain compared to the 14 seconds it takes for blood from arm to brain after an intravenous injection. Thus, after each inhaled puff, the smoker gets an intravenous-like ‘shot’ or bolus of blood containing a high concentration of nicotine which reaches the brain more rapidly than from an intravenous injection. The uptake of nicotine by the brain is also extremely rapid.

(Russell 1987:26)

Within 15 or 20 seconds nicotine has reached every part of the body. Nicotine absorption by pipe and cigar smoking, without inhalation, is slower and less intense. Research has shown that confirmed pipe and cigar smokers are satisfied with this pattern of nicotine absorption, but when cigarette smokers switch to these alternative methods they invariably inhale the smoke in an attempt to replicate the pharmacological experience they had as cigarette smokers (Russell 1987: 29–30). Nasal or dry snuff, by contrast, offers the tobacco consumer as efficient an absorption of nicotine as cigarette smoke inhalation whereas the use of oral or wet snuff is akin to that of pipe and cigar smoking and chewing tobacco (Russell 1987: 31–2).

Nicotine is a powerful and complex drug. It reacts with excitable cells in many parts of the body and brain. One of the reasons for this is that nicotine is structurally similar to acetylcholine, a vital neurotransmitter, which acts to bridge the synaptic gap between nerve endings. Because it is structurally similar to acetylcholine, nicotine can unlock and combine with acetylcholine receptors throughout the body (Ashton and Stepney 1982:37–8). The effect of nicotine is biphasic in that different dosage levels have differential impacts: a small dose produces a stimulant effect while a large dose acts as a depressant; an overdose blocks neurotransmission altogether leading to instant death (Ashton and Stepney 1982:38–9). Besides its interaction and relationship with acetylcholine, nicotine has also been shown to release many other types of nerve transmitters, including norepinephrine, epinephrine, serotonin and dopamine, some of which have been shown to be related to hallucinogens (Martin 1987:3; Wilbert 1991: 185). All of these chemical changes in the body result in physiological and psychological changes including changes in blood pressure and pulse rate; increasing and decreasing respiration; decreasing skin temperature; producing feelings of well-being, arousal, alertness and many others (Martin 1987: 2–3; USDHHS 1988). Nicotine seems to act in such a critical way in the body that there is more than a suspicion that it acts to release primary drives similar to hunger pangs (West and Grunberg 1991:488).

Tobacco smoke also contains other, possibly mind-altering drugs (Janiger and Dobkin de Rios 1976; Siegel et al. 1977:18). Unfortunately, it also includes many compounds that have been implicated as carcinogenic and disease-related. There are at least fifty such compounds, including cadmium, arsenic and formaldehyde (Davis 1987:20; Ginzel 1990:432–3).

In contrast to its chemical complexity, especially when burned, tobacco is comparatively simple to grow under differing climatic and soil conditions. The tobacco plant is prodigious in leaf growth at the same time as being economical on field space. Plant populations can range from 15, 000 to 25,000 per hectare: a single plant can easily produce over 2 square metres of usable leaf (Akehurst 1981:3). These characteristics alone suggest the vast economic potential of the tobacco plant.

In global terms tobacco is generally considered the most widely grown non-food crop though, in terms of overall area devoted to it, the tobacco crop is not that important, accounting only for about 0.3 per cent of cultivated land—this can usefully be compared to the proportion for grain, average 13 per cent; cotton, 2 per cent; and coffee, 0.7 per cent (FAO 1989:1). In many countries, however, the proportion is much larger: in Malawi, for example, it is 4.3 per cent and in China it is over 1 per cent (FAO 1989:1).

The tobacco plant is of enormous economic importance to many countries of the world, both developed and developing. Table 1.1 shows the distribution of the world’s crop according to information available for 1990. Asia’s enormous share of the world’s tobacco crop is one of the most significant aspects of global tobacco cultivation. The grouping by regions in this fashion does, however, obscure the fact that production in individual countries of the developed world is considerable. This fact is revealed more clearly in Table 1.2, which shows the distribution of global production by the seven largest national producers. The position of the United States in the ranking of national producers is not surprising but that of China is important to note in the context of the historical discussion that follows in the succeeding chapters. One other important feature of contemporary tobacco cultivation is not revealed in Table 1.2. Most people do not associate tobacco growing with Europe but within the European Community it is extremely important. In 1990 the total production of the EC stood at 419,000 metric tons placing it in fifth position in the world’s league table, but only marginally behind India and Brazil.

Table 1.1 World tobacco crop 1990 (000 metric tons)

Table 1.2 World tobacco crop 1990, percentage of world production, seven leading countries (000 metric tons)

Most of the world’s tobacco crop—estimated at 85 per cent of the total —ends up in cigarettes (FAO 1989:6). To this end, therefore, most of the world’s production of tobacco leaf is of the type suited for this purpose, that is, light air- and flue-cured tobacco (FAO 1989:4; Chapman and Wong 1990:30). This is a trend which has been in evidence for some time and is, according to most authorities on the subject, likely to continue into the future.

This prodigious output has many effects on the economy of each of the countries where tobacco is cultivated. One of the most obvious and most direct effects is on the demand for agricultural labour. It is difficult, and in some places almost impossible, to provide reliable information on labour, not only because of under-reporting but also because of the highly seasonal nature of the demand for labour and the fact that many farming families raise other crops in addition to tobacco. Nevertheless, while the degree of accuracy of the figures can be debated, the order of magnitude is clear enough. Recent figures on the numbers employed on the land in growing tobacco are shown in Table 1.3. China employs more people in tobacco cultivation than does any other country, about sixteen million people, according to recent estimates (FAO 1989:6). In relative terms there is a great variation in the importance of tobacco growing in the demand for labour. In China, for example, where a large proportion of overall employment is on the land, tobacco growing occupies about 2 per cent of total agricultural employment: in Zimbabwe the comparable figure is 15 per cent, but in Greece and Italy it is 35 per cent and 17 per cent respectively (FAO 1989:6–7; PIEDA 1992:17). All of the figures are given in total numbers employed without regard for the nature of the work, whether full- or part-time, seasonal or annual. Using full-time equivalents as the measure of labour force participation, the Greek figure, for example, would fall to around 10 per cent, which is still substantial enough (Joosens and Raw 1991:1193).

Table 1.3 Employment in tobacco growing 1987

In what was one of the most comprehensive analyses of its kind so far undertaken, two independent organizations in 1987 reported on the nature of the world’s tobacco culture. According to this report, in 1983 the fulltime labour demand for tobacco production, from growing to distribution, was 18.2 million people worldwide: adding in a proportion of labour from supply industries and relaxing the tight definition of labour demand, so that family members, part-time and seasonal workers are counted in full, the authors of the report estimated that tobacco was responsible for the livelihood of at least a hundred million people (Chapman and Wong 1990: 49; Warner 1990:82).

In many countries of the world tobacco contributes significantly to agricultural incomes, being near the top of a league table in many places. Tobacco is particularly important in China, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Greece: available figures show that tobacco accounts for between 10 per cent and 25 per cent of total agricultural income in the last three countries (FAO 1989:8). Even where the relative value is not as large as in these countries, tobacco still holds an important position in overall agricultural activities. In Japan tobacco ranks in fourth place of all crops; in Canada it is in fifth place; in the United States and Korea it is in eighth position (FAO 1989:7–8).

There are many reasons why tobacco figures so importantly in the economy of so many countries, both developed and developing, but one of the most important and certainly most obvious reasons is that the return of tobacco per hectare of land is both absolutely and relatively high. In the mid-1980s, for example, the gross returns per hectare from tobacco in Zimbabwe were almost twice those of coffee, the next most profitable crop, and ten times more profitable than food crops: in Brazil, India and the United States tobacco is also the most profitable crop (FAO 1989: 8–9). The relative profitability of tobacco growing is largely acco...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• FIGURE AND TABLES
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• ABBREVIATIONS
• INTRODUCTION
• 1. WHAT IS TOBACCO?: THE BOTANY, CHEMISTRY AND ECONOMICS OF A STRANGE PLANT
• PART I
• PART II
• PART III
• PART IV
• BIBLIOGRAPHY