"O, veteran chaw! thy fibres savory, strong,
While aught remained to chew, thy master chewed,
Then cast thee here, when all thy juice was gone,
Emblem of selfish man's ingratitude!
"O, happy man! O, cast-off quid! is he
Who, like as thou, has comforted the poor;
Happy his age who knows himself, like thee,
Thou didst thy duty—man can do no more."
Another well known song of the Seventeenth Century is entitled "The Tryumph of Tobacco over Sack and Ale:"—
Nay, soft by your leaves,
Tobacco bereaves
You both of the garland; forbear it;
You are two to one,
Yet tobacco alone
Is like both to win it, and weare it.
Though many men crack,
Some of ale, some of sack,
And think they have reason to do it;
Tobacco hath more
That will never give o'er
The honor they do unto it.
Tobacco engages
Both sexes, all ages,
The poor as well as the wealthy;
From the court to the cottage,
From childhood to dotage,
Both those that are sick and the healthy.
It plainly appears
That in a few years
Tobacco more custom hath gained,
Than sack, or than ale,
Though they double the tale
Of the times, wherein they have reigned.
And worthily too,
For what they undo
Tobacco doth help to regaine,
On fairer conditions
Than many physitians,
Puts an end to much griefe and paine;
It helpeth digestion,
Of that there's no question,
The gout and the tooth-ache it easeth:
Be it early, or late,
'Tis never out of date,
He may-safely take it that pleaseth.
Tobacco prevents
Infection by scents,
That hurt the brain, and are heady.
An antidote is,
Before you're amisse,
As well as an after remedy.
The cold it doth heate,
Cools them that do sweate,
And them that are fat maketh lean:
The hungry doth feed,
And if there be need,
Spent spirits restoreth again.
The poets of old,
Many fables have told,
Of the gods and their symposia;
But tobacco alone,
Had they known it, had gone
For their nectar and ambrosia.
It is not the smack
Of ale or of sack,
That can with tobacco compare:
For taste and for smell,
It beares away the bell
From them both, wherever they are:
For all their bravado,
It is Trinidado,
That both their noses will wipe
Of the praises they desire,
Unless they conspire
To sing to the tune of his pipe.
The history of the rise and progress of tobacco in England, is one of the most interesting features connected with the use and cultivation of the plant. In Spain, Portugal, Germany and Holland the plant was sustained and encouraged by the throne, and royalty was the strongest and most devoted defender it had. It saw in the encouragement of its use, an income of revenue and a source of profit far greater than that received from any other product. Soon after its cultivation began in France, Spain, and Portugal, the tobacco trade was farmed out.
From its first cultivation in these countries it has been a government monopoly. In 1753, the King of Portugal farmed out the tobacco trade, and from that time until now, the annual amount received has been one of the principal sources of revenue to the crown. In France, as early as 1674, a monopoly of the trade was granted to Jean Breton, for six years, for the sum of 700,000 francs.
In 1720 the Indian Company paid for the privilege 1,500,000 francs per annum; and in 1771 the price was increased to 25,000,000 francs. Besides France there are thirteen other European states where the tobacco trade is a government monopoly, namely, Austria, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, Poland, Papal States, Portugal, Tuscany, Modena, Parma, San Marino, Lichtenstein.
From the first cultivation of the plant, its growers saw in the tobacco trade a vast and constantly increasing source of wealth. They doubtless in some measure comprehended the close relation existing between it and commerce and realized how extensive would be its use.
From the nature of the plant, it affords states and nations an opportunity to engage either in its culture or commerce with the prospect of the largest success. In this respect it is far different from any other tropical plant, and unlike them is capable of being cultivated in portions of the earth far remote from the tropics. In Switzerland and in the Caucassias it attains to a considerable size, but is nevertheless tobacco although it may possess but few of the excellences of some varieties, still it affords some enjoyment to the user, from the fact that it is the Indian weed. Fairholt speaking of the tobacco trade says:
"The progress of the tobacco trade from the earliest introduction of the plant into Europe until now, is certainly one of the most curious that commerce presents. That a plant originally smoked by a few savages, should succeed in spite of the most stringent opposition in church and state, to be the cherished luxury of the whole civilized world; to increase with the increase of time, and to end in causing so vast a trade, and so large an outlay of money; is a statistical fact, without an equal parallel."