Description ofDescription ofImports.Sales.
Tobacco.Packing.1883.1884.1883.1884.
KentuckyCasks20,82812,08420,01212,514
Virginia”3,9375,2504,8485,196
Maryland”4,9295,6154,5795,811
Scrubs”3831,3633831,027
Ohio”5811,1555661,174
Bay”101136234134
Stems”5,0137,3328,1635,403
HavanaSerons16,12715,02713,12111,967
Cuba and Yara”22,46722,25929,29717,383
St. Domingo”83,83659,66558,12144,065
Seed-leafChests17,07018,72377,00018,203
Porto RicoBales1,1333001,1372,210
Esmeralda”705549776599
ColumbiaSerons and bales11,86221,04114,03222,659
VarniasLeaves and rolls9222,0653,1742,065
Brazil, in leavesBales131,982185,061139,397189,246
Paraguay”2,6722,6012,8792,819
Rio Grande”4,571..10,1991,340
Manilla”507721106
Mexican”..10..10
Turkish and Greek”6,1556,8258,2358,105
Other varieties”1,4962,0171,4413,357

Good qualities of Havana fetched adequate prices. The demand for Cuba, Yara, Carmen, and Domingo was brisk; Brazilian and Felix found ready buyers, owing to the last good crop, the prices rising towards the close of the year. The stock of Porto Rico was realized at a low figure. In seed-leaf Pennsylvania plants were chiefly imported, and, being of a good quality, were for the most part promptly disposed of. Much inclination was shown for Turkish tobacco, and the same remark applies to business in Paraguay, of which the supplies might have been greater. Chinese tobacco, very brisk at first on account of its fine quality, later on fell off again considerably.

The value of the tobacco consumed in Germany in 1878 is calculated to have been 353 million marks, or 17,650,000l. sterling, the total return to the revenue being 26,383,966 marks, or 1,319,198l. The quantity consumed in that empire in the year is stated at 2,196,000 cwt., or rather more than 100,000 tons. Of this quantity 582,600 cwt., or upwards of 29,000 tons, were consumed in the form of cigars. Reckoning a hundred cigars to a pound in weight, the number of cigars consumed in Germany in 1878 would be upwards of seven thousand millions, which would give two cigars a day all the year round to ten million smokers. But besides cigars the Germans smoked in the year 1,327,200 cwt., or upwards of 60,000 tons of tobacco more or less manufactured. In the form of snuff they took 160,600 cwt., or 8000 tons, in the course of the year, while in the way of chewing-tobacco they limited themselves to the moderate quantity of 14,200 cwt., or about 700 tons. Rather more than one-third of the total weight of tobacco consumed was grown within the limits of Germany, the quantity so produced in 1878 being 596,776 cwt., while the imports amounted to 1,768,855 cwt. of tobacco leaves, 4827 cwt. of roll tobacco, 14,170 cwt. of cigars, 8321 cwt. of stems for snuffs, 513 cwt. of snuff, and 101 cwt. of chewing-tobacco. The total area of land engaged in growing the plant in 1878 was 18,016 hectares, or about 44,520 acres. Two-thirds of that quantity was grown in Rhenish Bavaria, Baden, South Hesse, and Alsace-Lorraine, in which districts 11,623 hectares were employed in the cultivation of the plant.

Great Britain.—The proposal to re-establish tobacco culture in the United Kingdom has called for the following sensible article in the Planters’ Gazette.

“The question of growing tobacco in the United Kingdom is not so simple as patriotic Irishmen and enthusiasts of acclimatization might think. Tobacco has been classed, like tea and coffee, as among those necessaries of life which could not be grown with any advantage in the United Kingdom, and might therefore be freely taxed for revenue purposes. It is, indeed, true that a passable herb may be grown and called tobacco, in many parts of the United Kingdom, but the fact has been generally recognized that competition with more tropical countries is practically fruitless, and therefore to be abandoned. It is easily to be understood that so aromatic a crop, monopolizing so many of the best and rarest qualities of the soil, would require high manuring; and that, just as is the case of any other crop—such as hops, or even wheat—one could get nothing of the special excellence of the herb required but what one has previously put into the soil. But, to be profitable, the plant requires good heat as well as good soil. This, therefore, is the whole economical question, and upon that the matter mainly hinges. The claim to grow real tobacco in England or Ireland is based upon the allegation that the herb can be grown at a profit. The best evidence furnished to the House of Commons on Monday evening on this point was that of Lord Harris, who affirmed boldly that Ireland and parts of England were prepared to enter into a fair competition with the recognized productive colonies. The Government, and with them, Lord Iddesleigh, are in favour of an experiment largely granting all that is asked, and carefully observing the result. Then, when the British tobacco comes upon the ordinary market, let it be taxed as any other similar product would be. The Government could not view with anything but dismay the prospect of a fall in revenue; and there is no question, therefore, that the home-grown tobacco must pay duty to the full. The crux of the question is how such duty can be enforced without an army of revenue officers, whose practical duties would bear no reasonable proportion to their probable cost. Our own impression is that tobacco can never be grown in these islands on any large scale to compete with the growers within the tropics, and that the expense of collecting revenue would be out of all proportion to the amount collected. At the same time, it ill becomes us as a Free-trading nation to shut out any class of our own countrymen, by duties distinctly prohibitive, from following a branch of agriculture which they think they could make profitable. It is against our principle to offer a bounty on the forced cultivation of exotics, such as tobacco undoubtedly is when grown in these islands, but it would be still worse to maintain, on merely pedantic grounds, a prohibitive import on a crop which many men think the smaller tenants could produce to the great advantage of their holdings. We are by no means sanguine of their success; but that is no reason why they should not try.”

Greece.—The production of tobacco in Greece is about 4 million okes (of 2¾ lb.) annually. Patras, in 1878, exported 300 tons to Holland, Austria, and Turkey, at a value of 25–30l. a ton. The values of the exports from Syra, in 1879, were 3503l. to Great Britain, 2325l. to Turkey, 88l. to the Danubian Principalities, 236l. to France, 554l. to Austria, 436l. to Egypt, 1605l. to Russia; and in 1878, 1528l. to Turkey, 1875l. to Great Britain, 93l. to the Danubian Principalities, 441l. to Austria, 334l. to France, 266l. to Russia, 39l. to Egypt.

In 1884, Nauplia exported 13,000l. worth of tobacco; and Calamata, 2400l. worth. The value at Patras was 45s. per cwt. Syra imported 439l. worth of tobacco and 305l. worth of tumbeki from Turkey; but exported 10,459l. worth of tobacco to Turkey, 697l. worth to Great Britain, 17,723l. worth to Egypt, 200l. worth to Russia, 120l. worth to Roumania, 2963l. worth to Italy, 1176l. worth to France, and 200l. worth to Austria.

Holland.—There were 4117 acres under tobacco in Holland in 1878, which produced 3,132,875 kilo. The imports of tobacco into Holland in 1878 were as follows:—Maryland, 5249, Kentucky, 500, and Virginian, 107 hogsheads; Java, 87,998, seed-leaf, 100, Sumatra, 33,671 packages. In 1876 and 1877, there were 5900 and 3993 packages respectively from Rio Grande. The exports of leaf from Holland in 1879 were 3,900,000 kilo.

Comparative Statement of the Imports of the Various Kinds

of Tobacco during the Five Years 1879–83.