Lucky Strike?
The Rise and fall of the ‘Global
Cigarette” in Honduras
© William M. Loker
Department of
Anthropology
Organization of Presentation:
• A brief
history of tobacco and the tobacco industry in
the U.S. and the world
• Global tobacco comes to the Copán Valley, Honduras
•The local in the global: the effects of global tobacco in
Copán
•Global tobacco leaves Copán … but not Honduras!
The Botany of Tobacco:
Nicotiana rustica, N. tabacum
Tobacco: a New World “Gift”
• Early domesticate, 5,000-7,000 years ago
in South America
• Widely used in shamanistic ritual for
curing, visionary experiences
– Smoked, snuffed, chewed, drunk as tea,
taken as enema, poultice on wounds, etc
• Reached northern North America by 4,000
years ago … wherever it was possible to
cultivate tobacco, it was grown, consumed
Early European Experiences
– 1492 Arawaks in Cuba offer Columbus and his men cigars, Columbus’ sailor,
Rodrigo Xeres is first European to smoke tobacco in Europe
– 1535 Cartier in Canada “There groweth a certain herb … they make a powder of
it and then put it in the end of the … pipe and laying a coal of fire upon it … suck
so long that they fill their bodies full of smoke till it cometh out of their nostrils and
mouth like smoke from a chimney”
– 1556 Andre Thevat brings tobacco seeds to France from Brazil, 1560 Jean Nicot,
French Ambassador to Portugal becomes interested in curative powers of
tobacco … his name becomes name for genus Nicotiana …
– 1588 Thomas Hariot’s A Briefe and True report of the New Found Land of
Virginia: There is an herbe which is sowed a part by it selfe & is called by the
inhabitants uppówoc. . The Spaniards generally call it Tobacco. . . We ourselves
during the time we were there used to suck it after their manner, as also since
our return . . .
•
By 1776, Tobacco was the American colonies’ second leading export and employed
50% of workforce in it’s cultivation & trade
Tobacco use in America
• Chaw, snuff, pipes, cigars and … cigarettes
– In 1900 Americans consumed about 400 million
pounds of tobacco, 100 million lbs. in cigars, 290
million lbs. in plug, snuff and pipe tobacco and 10
million lbs. in cigarettes
– In 1946 Americans consumed 1.3 billion lbs. of
tobacco: 1 billion lbs. in cigarettes, 130 million lbs. in
cigars, 170 million lbs. in plug, snuff and pipe tobacco
• Per capita consumption nearly doubled 1900-1950
– Tobacco consumption peaked in the US in 1970s and
has declined since then … but increased globally
“Hello, boys, my name is Duke …
• Bosnack machine
(1881) and the
cigarette revolution
– 2,500/day to 120,000/day
• The rise of American
Tobacco Company
– Early adopter of Bosnack
machine
– 1904 controls 80% of U.S.
tobacco production
James B. Duke
1856-1925
“The Tobacco Trust stands forth as a conspicuous example of that type of
industrial combination which owes merely to the magnitude of its working
capital those advantages in production and distribution that enable it to crush
competitors until it is in possession of a large part of the entire market.”
Jacobstein 1907:101
… and I come to buy your business”
•
•
•
Tobacco Wars: 1901, ATC “invades” Britain
Imperial Tobacco: the British response
Truce in the Tobacco Wars: 1902 the founding
of British-American Tobacco (BAT) …
1.
2.
3.
4.
•
ATC agrees to withdraw from British market and Imperial
agrees not to enter US market
ATC and Imperial agree not to engage in exports except
through BAT
Imperial and ATC split ownership of BAT Co. 1/3 Imperial, 2/3
ATC
BAT can not enter US or British market
BAT becomes leading international tobacco company
“I have just completed a great deal with British manufacturers covering
the world securing great benefit for our companies …” Duke in telegram
to his father
Currently, the 2nd
Largest Tobacco Co.
in the world …
“With no international competitors of comparable size, BAT
Co. was able to develop its activities abroad opposed only
by domestic competitors in the countries where it invested.
In those markets where tobacco manufacturing was still
largely in pre-industrial conditions … BAT Co.’s brands
and subsidiaries pioneered the development of modern
cigarette manufacturing. …at the beginning of the
twentieth century, therefore, BAT Co. was the only British
or American tobacco firm with an international market for
its products, and the leading manufacturer of tobacco
products of various countries, most notably Australia,
Canada, South Africa, India and China.” Cox 2001:6
“Is it not a grand thing in every way that England and America should join
hands in a vast empire rather than be in competition? Come along with
me and together we will conquer the rest of the world.” Duke at dinner
celebrating BAT’s formation
1911: The Trust Busted
• May 29, 1911, US Supreme Court hands down
anti-trust verdict against American Tobacco
Company.
– “Undisputed facts overwhelmingly demonstrate that the acts, contracts,
agreements, combinations, etc … were of such an unusual and
wrongful character as to bring them within the prohibitions of the law.”
• Out of the Ashes: ATC, Lorillard, Liggett and
Myers and RJ Reynolds in the US
• Duke forced to divest BAT holdings … BAT
becomes a British company
British American Tobacco:
prototype of the TNC
• Follows the ATC model of squeezing out
local competition, then …
• Buys up local cigarette manufacturers to
avoid tariffs and other national barriers
• Contract farming to avoid production risk,
political fallout, and diversify sources
• Major investments in China, India, Brazil
… and Honduras
Global Tobacco Comes to
Honduras
• 1928: BAT buys out two local (competing)
cigarette manufacturers in Honduras and
forms Tabacalera Hondureña, SA
• 1950s: BAT enters into contract farming
arrangements with local tobacco
producers in Copán Valley
• Transformation of tobacco production in
Copán: Adios, Quinbí, Hello, Virginia …
Tabaco, el patrimonio de Copán: ideal conditions (climate,
soils, irrigation) for tobacco and a LONG history of cultivation
of the crop …
Map showing location of Honduras and the Copán Valley
“Bright leaf” comes to Copán
• Origins of “bright leaf” tobacco
– Stephen, the sleepy slave, 1839
• Flue-curing tobacco
– tobacco cured in “ovens” at temperatures of
around 100-130 degrees F over 5-10 days
• Adds to the complexity, labor intensity and
energy requirements of tobacco
production
• Major component of cigarette tobacco
Golden Years: La Companía and
“Tabaco Virginia” in Copán
• 1950s: BAT brings in the “good ole boys”
from North Carolina
– Flue curing technical package:
• Varieties, fertilizers, pesticides, tractors, ovens
– Contracts with planters: BAT provides seeds,
agro-chemicals, credit, market
– Planter provides land, labor, harvest
– Rise of a planter class: Labor? Fuelwood?
Power?
Flue-cured Tobacco: social and
environmental aspects
• Highly labor intensive: original slave crop
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–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Seed beds
Transplanting
Deflowering
Suckering
Agrochemicals
Harvest (~ 5 passes per plant)
Curing
Selection and Packing
• 285 person days/hectare x 300 has = 85,500 person
days of labor per season … major employer in valley
• Mozos colonos in casas de basura …
Preparing seed beds, spraying
agrochemicals and transplanting
tobacco in Copán
Laboring in the
Fields
Flue-cured Tobacco: capital
intensive
• Credit for:
– Seeds
– Labor
– Agrochemicals
– Machinery
– Irrigation equipment
– Fuelwood for curing
• BAT supply of credit + sole buyer of
product = power in contract relationship
Flue cured Tobacco: environmental
aspects
• Intensive use of agrochemicals: (2001 data)
– Methyl bromide: fumigant, highly toxic, ozone
depleting chemical
– Vydate: carbamate, insecticide, EPA Type 1
– Lannate: carbamate, insecticide, EPA Type 1
– Mocap: organophosphate, nematicide, Type 1
– Nemacur: organophosphate, nematicide, Type 1
– Endosulfan: chlorinated hydrocarbon, insecticide,
Type 1
– Furdan: carbamate, insecticide, Type 1
• Many other chemicals ... Change over time,
synergistic health effects …
Flue cured Tobacco: environmental
aspects
• Flue curing and deforestation
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–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Boom years ~ 1960-1985
~ 300 hectares of flue cured tobacco/year
~ 3 cubic meters of firewood per “horneada”
~ 6 horneadas per hectare
~ 5,400 cubic meters of firewood/yr
~ 150 cubic meters of wood/ha in Copán area
~ 36 hectares of forest/yr deforested
~ 900 hectares of deforestation 1960-85
• Little regeneration, replanting
Typical, and not so
typical, tobacco hornos in
the Copán Valley
Copan Valley, Land Cover, 1955, in hectares
(area in common with 1978 photos, approx. 1,400 hectares)
Copan Land Cover
1955-1978 …
Towns & roads, 8.01, 1%
Forest, 321.63, 23%
Towns & roads
Ag land
Forest
Ag land, 1,082.19, 76%
Copan Valley, Land Cover, 1978, in hectares
(area in common with 1955/60 photos, approx. 1,400 hectares)
Forest, 154.59, 11%
Towns & roads, 24.18, 2%
Area in Forest declined by
170 hectares, more than
half … this is the height of
the flue cured tobacco
boom …
Towns & roads
Ag land
Forest
Ag land, 1,234.66, 87%
Copan Valley, Land Cover, 1978, in hectares
(area in common with 1999 photos, approx. 750 hectares)
Forest, 67.85, 9%
Copan Land Cover,
1978-1999 …
Towns & roads, 14.65, 2%
Towns & roads
Ag land
Forest
Ag land, 670.34, 89%
Copan Valley, Land Cover, 1999, in hectares
(area in common with 1978 photos, approx. 750 hectares)
Other, 13.75, 2%
Towns & roads, 29.75, 4%
Forest, 110.20, 15%
Area in Forest increased from
68 to 110 hectares …
recovery of forest with decline
of flue cured tobacco …
Towns & roads
Ag land
Forest
Other
Ag land, 599.07, 79%
The Global in the Local: summary
• BAT: a pioneering TNC
• In Copán, BAT built on an existing tradition of
tobacco cultivation, transformed it with new
technology, infusion of credit, market access
• BAT’s tobacco production in Copán:
– employment, (low) wages, poor health for many
– prosperity for a few … reinforced inequality
– controlled access to markets … la Companía as
patron
– degraded environment
The Boom goes Bust:
BAT has left the Valley …
• Growers increasingly restive in 1980s-90s
– Cost:price squeeze, new pests, diseases, macro forces
• Laborers increasingly restive
– Oversupply of labor, scarcity of land, subsistence squeeze
– Rise of ethnopolitical movement
• BAT increasingly under pressure
– Lawsuits, competition, efficiency
– Liberalization  less need for local supplies of leaf
• 1999: BAT reorganizes, ends production of tobacco in
Honduras, maquilization of cigarette manufacture in
Honduras
– A new phase of globalization?
After the Bust …
• Growers seeking alternative crops
• Agricultural economy in decline
• Some landowners selling out (at high
prices) to government for land
redistribution
• Tourism: the new patrimonio of Copán?
Sorting and
Pressing
Burley …
… the Last Tobacco
Crop in Copán?
Conclusions
• Understanding social and environmental
change requires attention to the global, the
local and their interplay
• The insertion of global economic actors in
a locality creates opportunities for, and at
the same time, constrains social and
environmental change
• Unless carefully directed, global actors are
likely to reinforce existing patterns of
social inequality
Conclusions
• Global actors always hold the trump card
of mobility in dealing with local actors, who
by definition are rooted in determinant
places  “race to the bottom?”
• Global corporations are driven primarily by
the profit motive and are difficult to “tame”
• Localities are many (infinite?), global
actors few: actions designed to rein in
social/environmental abuses should be
directed at global actors, therefore …
Think
Locally,
Act
Globally?