The Beginning of Retail Tobacco Licences, 1632–41

Abstract

THE drugge called Tobaccoe '' held a unique place in the fiscal system of early Stuart England. It was a foreign and a novel commodity, so that the Crown's power to tax and control its import went unquestioned. Its popularity spread to all social classes and its rate of consumption seemed unaffected by the strictures of moralists and the imposts of the Customs House. Those, like James I, who disliked the new fashion as a corruption of the age, could have the gratifying thought that the royal revenue was being supplemented at the expense of the wilfully self-indulgent.Yet the prohibition of unlicensed retailers in 1634 was more than an attempt to improve morals by proclamation. It formed part of Charles I' s search for new sources of revenue during the eleven years of nonparliamentary rule, and in consequence both the principle and the machinery of licensing came under fire when Parliament had to be called in 1640. Like other Stuart licences (such as those for retailing wine and ale and for trading in wool) the system provided an indirect, clumsy and unpopular method of raising indirect taxes on articles of popular consumption, but the opponents of the licences were more conscious of the high prices which the licencees charged than of the advantages of collecting the country's indirect taxes without the expense of revenue officers. The usefulness of the retail tobacco tax could not be ignored even by Charles' opponents, and after his execution it returned in the form of an excise duty.'For the early history of tobacco see F. W. Fairholt, Tobacco (1859) ; for the Virginia trade and the import system G. L. Beer, Origin8 of the British Colonial System (New York, 1908) c. 6 ; for reproduction of many of the early printed references to the importation and retailing, Jerome E. Brooks ed., Tobacco, It3 History Illustrated by the Library of George Arenta, Jnr. (New York, 1937) 4 vols. and index vol. These works, like that of C. M . Mackinnes, The Early English Tobacco Trade (1926), are almost wholly concerned with importation. . . . 2 R. Steele, ed. Tudor and Stuart Proclamations (1910), i, no. 1423. 1 Ibid., no. 1516. 8 Cautain Grice for Le Grvs) DrODOSed a ban on all exceDt licensed dealers who should buy; 'licence for €5 and p a i a'n'anhual fee to the Crown of' € 1 . MSS. 10038, ff. 76 and 78. B(ritish) M(useum) Add. 3 Add. MSS. 10038 (from Sir Julius Caesar's papers) is a bound collection of these half-sad, _ _ half-mad ambitions. retailing in J. E. Brooks, op. cit., i, p. 49 and ii, p. 31. 1 These details are taken from the elaborately documented account of the growth of P(ub1ic) R(ecord) O(ffice), P(rivy) C(ounci1 Register) 2/44/153. 0 P.R.O., S(tate) P(apers) 16/180/32. 7 P.C. 2/41/526-8.~~

Tobacco retail licences and state formation in early modern England and Wales

“…However, Beresford had not taken into account licences that had since become void following non‐payment of rent or the licensee's death. Beresford, ‘Retail tobacco licences’, pp. 230, 236–7, tab.…”

“…Beresford, ‘Retail tobacco licences’, p. 239; Chartres, ‘Food consumption’, p. 174; Rowley, ‘How England learned to smoke’, pp. 346–7.…”

“…Beresford, ‘Retail tobacco licences’, p. 231. The fine was roughly the same as rent for one year; however because the fine was only a single payment, rent produced more revenue over the project's lifespan.…”

“…Beresford, ‘Retail tobacco licences’, p. 230. However, some of these replaced pre‐existing licences that had since become void; TNA, E122/218/25.…”

“…Charles I, Proclamation concerning tobacco (1639); idem, Proclamation declaring His Majesties pleasure ; Beresford, ‘Retail tobacco licences’, p. 230.…”