Marina Nebro
May 4, 2013
Tobacco in China and England
Though located on opposite ends of the globe, and though related to the
Americas in different ways, Europe and Asia had a similar relationship with
tobacco’s emergence in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Though the drug
infiltrated the majority of European and Asian communities, governmental
authorities were hesitant to accept the indigenous weed. Focusing primarily on
China and England, this research paper will look at the social, political, and
economic implications of tobacco’s emergence.
During the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Spain and Portugal
were very active in sea exploration. Their main goals were to find gold, – which they
did in South and Central America from the Aztecs and Inca – to spread Christianity
through missionary excursions, and to become the most powerful countries in
Europe. In 1492, Christopher Columbus made a transatlantic journey with the aim
of finding an alternate route to India and Asia for the monarchs of Spain. Instead,
due to poor planning and lack of knowledge of the globe’s size, he ended up landing
in the New World off the coast of Hispaniola or modern day Dominican Republic. It
is from the Native American tribes of the island as well as other areas that Columbus
traveled to, that tobacco was introduced to Europeans. Until early English
colonization during the seventeenth century, the only way the English were able to
interact with tobacco was through the Spanish or Portuguese middlemen. Later on,
though, the English colonies, especially those in the Chesapeake area, grew tobacco
as a cash crop, which proliferated the plant’s popularity in the British Isles.
Unlike Spain and Portugal, China was not looking for the “Three G’s” – gold,
God, and glory – when it came to exploring. It is false to say that the Chinese had no
interest in traveling. Timothy Brook has demonstrated that Chinese navigators
were imperative in aiding European explorers in their journeys around the Indian
and Pacific Oceans as well as the myriad seas around the coast of the Asian
continent.1 This being said, the Chinese were quite introverted and ethnocentric.
Different than the European ethnocentrism, Chinese ethnocentrism did not lead
them to spread their ideas and beliefs. The Chinese did not want to share their
customs with people of other cultures who were perceived as inferior. For this
reason, Asia, and China especially, had no direct contact with the Americas out of its
own choice. As mentioned earlier, one of Columbus’ main goals was to find an
alternate route to Asia. The fact that he wanted an alternate route shows that there
was already initial contact with the orient. The true origins Asian exposure to
tobacco is at best theoretical. Because there were so many people exchanging ideas,
products, and monetary wealth in the East, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when,
where, and how tobacco was first introduced. It is very likely, nevertheless, that
either the Spanish travelling to and from their colonies in the Philippines, or
Portugal in the islands off the coast of China brought the first seeds into Asia.
The original or native use of tobacco in the Americas differs greatly from
what its use becomes to the Europeans and Asians. Used by many if not most of the
Amerindian peoples of the New World, tobacco was a way to converse with the
spirit world. The weed was used in religious ceremonies. At this time, tobacco was
Timothy Brook, “Asia and Europe and the Americas,” Becoming Global: The
Renaissance and the World (New York, NY), March 15, 2013.
1
much more potent than it is today, and would create strong hallucinations among its
users. It is for this reason that the Amerindians believed they were conversing with
spirits of another world. To the Europeans, their religious ceremonies seemed to be
comprised of erratic dancing and noisemaking.2
As mentioned earlier, European and Asian uses of tobacco differed quite
drastically from its original usage by the Amerindians. But, before delving into their
separate, yet similar, societal practices, it is important to understand how tobacco
culture permeated society. Both in Europe and Asia, tobacco crept into the
mainstream through fringe groups. Due to Confucian ideals in China, there was a
strong hierarchical societal structure. At the bottom of the pyramid were the
merchants. These traveling salesmen were seen as the lowest rung on the social
ladder because they made a profit from other people’s work. Confucius stressed the
idea of self-accomplishment, and merchants did not fit this ideal. Logistically,
though, it is hard to place well to do, social groups at the bottom of society. It was
“remarkable… [how] this new custom ‘trickled in’ and ‘trickled up’ from spatial and
social peripheries to the center, from the borderlands to inland cities and then to the
rural hinterland.”3 Because of their wealth, they had the “ability to maintain a
lifestyle reminiscent of the official scholarly elite.”2 Merchants were very involved
overall with everyday activity in China. It was this particular social group that was
2
Schülting, Sabine. "INDIANIZED WITH THE INTOXICATING FILTHIE FUMES OF
TOBACCO": ENGLISH ENCOUNTERS WITH THE "INDIAN WEED." Hungarian
Journal of English and American Studies. 11.1 (2005): 93-116.
3
Benedict, Carol. Golden-Silk Smoke: a history of tobacco in China, 1550-2010. 1st ed.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.
first exposed to tobacco through European travelers and traders, and later brought
the new product to market.
Many Chinese elite found this fluidity between the merchant class and the
rest of society a problem. In Carol Benedict’s Golden-Silk Smoke, she mentions that
the breakdown of classes really troubled much of the aristocracy, especially due to
“preexisting anxieties… about the intensive commercialization, urbanization, and
monetization of the economy that occurred in the latter half of the Ming Dynasty.”2
The elite’s anxiety did not only come from the social mobility of the merchant, but
also the sharing of practices with Chinese common folk. “Tobacco smoking was one
custom that passed from the floating world or the busy commercial realm to the
magistrate’s yamen,”2 which was an infiltration of common culture into aristocratic
and even dynastic life. As a brief aside that will come up later in the discussion
about societal practices and views on tobacco, women in China might have been
introduced to the habit from “concubines or female servants.”2
In Europe, as well, tobacco infiltrated society through its outskirts. Though
there was no Confucian hierarchical system in place in European, and specifically in
English society, there were social constructs creating a sort of hierarchical pyramid.
Similar to the merchants, it was the “seaman” or sailor that first introduced the
“Indian Weed” to the British Isles. Sailors were part of the working class as they
drank at docks and spread the practice of “’tobacco drinking’ to the emergent post
feudal working class in the tavern.”4 It is believed that usage of tobacco in lower
4
Hartnett, Alexandra. "The Politics of the Pipe: Clay Pipes and Tobacco
Consumption in Galway, Ireland." International Journal of Historical
Archaeology. 8.2 (2004): 133-147.
class society wasn’t so much to fit in with the elite or the intellectuals who used the
herb, but because of its “psychoactive properties.” 3 Sailors often times went without
food for many days and were exposed to cold and damp weather. Tobacco was
believed to “dry out the humors in the chest”3 and is still known to curb hunger.
As in China, the European intelligentsia and artistic groups were fans of
tobacco use, while the elite and aristocratic classes were a bit more hesitant. There
was a worry about the origins of tobacco in Europe more so than in China. Though
both societies worried about the breakdown of cultural barriers, people in England
especially worried about the hybridity of the cultural practice of smoking. The use
of an indigenous herb created a sort of “cultural hybrid – white on the outside but
black on the inside.”1 Because tobacco was used for Amerindian religious practices,
Englishmen feared that it would influence devil worship in Europe.
Once tobacco was accepted in the lower classes, it soon “trickled up” as Carol
Benedict says, into the intelligentsia of society. Both in Chinese and English poets
praised the drug for its muse-like characteristics, though China had a longer history
of formally including tobacco into its intellectual culture. There is no lack of Chinese
poets from the Early Modern period who write about their experience with tobacco.
Chen Yuanlong, for example, wrote often and described the smoke as a “’rosy
cloud.’”2 There were even women authors who praised the use of tobacco. In
writing about smoking, the intelligentsia spread the habit to the rest of the
aristocracy and elite. The drug soon became part of entertainment customs, and
was used with wine when entertaining guests and with tea when showing
hospitality. The practice became so popular and well loved, that tobacco manuals
were written as well. Through a compilation of poetry, newsletters, essays, and
correspondence, author and ardent smoker Chen Cong published Yancao pu, or The
Tobacco Manual, in the year 1805.2
There was also the practice among women to smoke tobacco, as mentioned
before. Timothy Brook explains that “upper-class women were especially
enthusiastic” about it, and even formulated their daily plans around taking their
puffs.5 The Chinese belief in Daoism also played a main role when it came to women
and their tobacco pipes. Because of a woman’s make up, with her body made of yin
energy, pipes would be made longer to diffuse tobacco’s yang quality. Women were
also the only users of water pipes in China. Though it wasn’t frowned upon for
women to smoke – it was actually looked upon as quite harmonious, and showed
great domestic tranquility, for men and women to smoke together – smoking was
also associated with concubines and sexual promise. Images, poetry, and prose
were created in relation to this preconceived notion of feminine promiscuity and
tobacco.
The Chinese attitude towards women and smoking differs greatly from the
European opinion on the issue. Through archaeological evidence, it is known that
women in the Chesapeake – an English colony – smoked very regularly. Though
these women weren’t in the elite class and had to work, they took their tobacco with
them where they went and it was as much a part of their lives as it was to the elite
women of China. This being said, despite physical proof, there is no written record
5
Brook, Timothy. Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global
World. New York, Berlin, London: Bloomsbury Press, 2008. 117-152. Print.
of the support of smoking women, and no artwork depicts such act. The only
appearance of a woman smoking in artwork, specifically Dutch art, is when the
symbolism behind the piece is depicting a woman with low morals. This great
difference between sex and smoking shows how Europe and Asia acculturated the
use of tobacco in different ways.
With the positive attitude towards women and smoking, also came the
negative. Because of Confucian values, the more traditional Chinese society would
have looked down upon this practice. Confucius preached frugality and thrift among
Chinese women. Tobacco, though, is a crop that disappears in smoke and vapor and
is therefore a wasteful endeavor that Confucius would not approve of.
As a segue between societal practices and governmental attitudes towards
tobacco, it is important to see a hybrid example. Charles Cotton, a poet from the
mid-seventeenth century was a royalist during a time when the English people were
a bit hesitant about their king and his monarchical power. Unlike other writers of
the time who, like the Chinese, praised the use of tobacco, Charles Cotton took sides
with the royal government and lambasted its usage by the intelligentsia.
But my infected Muse begins to choke
In the vile stink of the increasing smoke,
And can no more in equal numbers chime,
Unless to sneeze, and cough, and spit in
rhyme.6
In the stanza above, Cotton is saying that instead of inspiring a writer, tobacco stifles
creativity and limits a writer’s ability to produce works.
At this time, King James I was the ruler of England, and he was in adamant
opposition to the use of tobacco. In his Counterblaste to Tobacco, he gives many
reasons for his difficulty in accepting the use of the Amerindian drug. His argument
seems very modern from a twenty-first century standpoint, and he seems to
understand that tobacco is no good for an individual’s health. As mentioned before,
it was believed that tobacco was a cure for all illness, especially venereal disease –
linking tobacco strongly with prostitution and concubines. He also describes it as a
drug that has “brought foorth a general sluggishnese, which makes us wallow in all
sorts of idle delights, and soft delicacies, the first seedes of the subversion of all
great Monarchies.”7 This is the crux of the issue – power. Though King James I gives
great examples, such as the fact that tobacco can’t possibly cure all illnesses due to
their contradictory characteristics – one example being the difference between
sobering a drunk man and inebriating a sober man – he mainly is worried about
how tobacco would influence his monarchical position – creating an apathetic
attitude among his subjects, and decreasing work ethic.
6
Cotton, Charles. "On Tobacco." Poems of Charles Cotton, 1630-1687. Charles Cotton.
Ed. John Beresford. Richard Cobden-Sanderson, 1923. 341.
7
Stuart I, King James. A Counterblaste to Tobacco. Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis
Terrarum Ltd., 1969. Print.
Tobacco was never officially endorsed by the Chinese dynasties, though as
mentioned above, the practice did infiltrate to high stations in the imperial society.
The drug was introduced in Asia during the early and mid-seventeenth century,
during the Ming Dynasty. As the Ming fell to the Qing, many elite members of
society blamed the change on the use of tobacco and its creation of an instable
ruling class.
In the above paragraphs, it has been explained that governments didn’t
particularly approve of tobacco smoking. Some might say it was because of political
dissention, but what was the real reason? The Chinese government, like Confucius,
was worried about waste. Unlike Europe, when tobacco was introduced to Asia,
small farmers would actually grow their own crops of tobacco rather than maintain
a trading relationship with other countries and colonies. Though the Chinese didn’t
need to depend on other countries, they did take up land space from growing
productive crops such as grain and rice. Especially with the large population that
China had, it was important to grow as much food as possible, but farmers were
more interested in growing tobacco. This lack of food would hurt the Chinese
economy and hurt its population.
Great Britain was not at the forefront of exploration in the Early Modern
period, especially when it came to the New World. Because of this, most crops such
as tobacco were being imported from other European nations such as Spain and
Portugal from their overseas colonies. England and Spain were never great allies,
especially since the removal of Catherine of Aragon from the throne, and therefore
the English had no desire to trade with Spain and make them a wealthier nation.
This attitude can be extrapolated towards attitudes towards smoking today, and the
fact that the south of Europe – the countries that began exploring first – is more
lenient when it comes to smoking than the north. Starting in the 1630s, northern
Europe began adopting “criminal penalties to discourage smokers” while “Spain,
Portugal, and the majority of the Italian states never legislated against the plant.”7
England was also worried about wasting resources, like China, and “Charles I wrote
to the Governor and Council of Virginia that… the colony produced no substantial
commodity and was ‘wholly built upon smoke.’”8
Eventually, though, both Europe and Asia did accept the popularity of
tobacco in their societies – and mainly for economic reasons. Take the modern day
example of Yunan, a southern province in China known for its tobacco production in
the twentieth century. Previously, the government had no direct influence or
impact on the growth of tobacco in China, but because of an expanding market
economy, the Chinese government began to encourage tobacco manufacturing. By
doing this, the government gets a monopoly on production and eliminates American
tobacco from the markets. Especially in a day and age when China is becoming a
larger player in the global market, it doesn’t want to rely on anyone else for
products.9
8
Best, Joel. "Economic Interests and the Vindication of Deviance: Tobacco in
Seventeenth Century Europe." Sociological Quarterly. 20.2 (1979): 171-182.
9
Eng, Irene. "Agglomeration and the Local State: The Tobacco Economy of Yunnan,
China." Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 24.3 (1999): 315329.
To return back to the Early Modern period and immediately following it,
Great Britain accepted the practice of tobacco smoking, as it needed more revenue.
As England entered the global exploration world, creating colonies in the Americas,
it had more of a hands-on role in the production and trade of tobacco. Even as early
as King James I, there was the conflict between morally abhorring tobacco and
economically needing tobacco taxes for profit. Later on, tobacco was allowed but
only from English colonies, allowing stronger governmental control and hence
higher revenue from the product.10 In a later poem written by Daniel Webster, an
American politician in the nineteenth century, he praises tobacco for its ability to
bring economic prosperity to the United States.11
The fact that England and China had and still have drastically different
cultures doesn’t eliminate the point that they had such similar reactions to a foreign
product – tobacco. In almost every major way, politically, socially, and
economically, England and China followed the same basic problems and solutions
that tobacco placed on them – from the permeation through fringe society to the
idea that smoking was a politically dangerous act. European and Chinese cultures
maintained some traditional elements when it came to smoking – attitudes towards
women, and religious and philosophical outlooks – showing that the two countries
truly acculturated separately to the Indian weed.
10
Butler, Todd. "Power in Smoke: The Language of Tobacco and Authority in
Caroline England." Studies in Philology. 106.1 (2009): 100-118.
11
Webster, Daniel. "Ode to Tobacco." Pipe and Pouch. L. C. Page & Company, 1894.
95.