American Tobacco and European Consumers

Tobacco became big in the English colonies. Tobacco was used to smoke, sniff, chew, drink, and even use for enemas. Desire to smoke was the only commercial value. Despite it’s popularity, King James did not smoke. He believed it was harmful. Another reason why King James didn’t believe in smoking is because it was an Indian custom. King James rational was that if they smoked like wild, godless, slavish Indians, why don’t they dress and act like them too? This is what he said to convince people to not smoke.
Physicians called tobacco the wonder drug. They believed that this was a, “holy drug.” They insisted that this was not only a drug for the sick but for also the healthy. It was not easy for people to have this miracle drug, it was an expensive habit to have in the seventeenth century because it was scarce. But although for being scarce, it spawned new industries, new habits, and new forms of social life. The people smoked nearly everywhere, including taverns, in smoking clubs, around dinner tables, and in bed.
Later on in the eighteenth century, the European consumers started a new trend of, “snuff.” It was not only considered fashionable but healthful.