tobacco industry

tobacco industry. This originated in the 16th cent. and was attacked by James I in his Counterblaste (1604). Yet smoking spread, and snuff-taking became fashionable. There were three products, cut tobacco for pipes, roll tobacco for chewing and smoking, and snuff. The cost of entry to the industry increased and by 1840 it was beginning to concentrate in large towns. Mass production of manufactured tobacco was made possible by Robert Legg, the inventor of the automatic cutting machine (1853). Among the upper classes cigars became popular in the 1840s and late in that decade cigarettes were first introduced. Cigarettes became popular with servicemen during the Crimean War, and their production greatly expanded after 1856. Light yellow tobacco, produced in Virginia, commonly replaced Turkish tobacco in handmade cigarettes by 1860. The introduction of the Bonsack machine (1881) led to the mass production of cigarettes and was adopted by Wills, the leading company in the tobacco industry. Wills formed the Imperial Tobacco Company in 1901 by merging the leading British manufacturers. Since 1960 medical evidence of the effects of addiction and the correlation between smoking and lung cancer has clearly hit domestic demand, but the industry has developed extensive markets overseas.

John Butt