One More Piece of the "English" Puzzle...

[phred]

I'm doing some research, in part to expand and reinforce my own knowledge of tobacco terminology and in part to learn more about the history of tobacco use and social attitudes (especially among Victorians), with an eye toward possibly presenting on the subject at Steampunk gatherings in the future.
Anyway, found an electronic copy of F.W. Fairholt's "Tobacco: Its History and Associations" (published in 1859) which opens with a discussion of the three base species of tobacco - Nicotiana tabacum, termed "Virginin tobacco", Nicotiana persica, termed "Shiraz tobacco" and native to Persia, and Nicotiana rustica, or "Syrian Tobacco" - the latter being the "Oriental" variety used for Latakia (both Turkish and Syrian). According to Mr. Fairholt, Nicotiana rustica (like its cousin Nicotiana tabacum) is originally native to the Americas,

but grows wild in other countries, and is a hardy annual in English gardens, flowering from Midsummer to Michaelmas, so that by some botanists it has been termed "common, or English tobacco."

As has been noted in Bob Tate's article (linked under "Featured Articles" on the left-hand side of this site), the use of the term "English Blends" dates back to English purity laws and has more to do with the use of tobacco only , without additives. Fairholt quotes a publication by one Mr. Prescott, in which he notes certain "adulterations which from time to time have been discovered in manufactured tobacco... Leaves of Rhubarb, Dock, Burdock, Colts-foot, Beech, Plantain, Oak and Elm, Peat-earth, Bran, Sawdust, Malt-rootlets, Barley-meal, Oatmeal, Bean-meal, Pea-meal, Potato-starch, and Chicory leaves steeped in tar-oil." 8O
So it seems there were good reasons for the English purity laws with regard to tobacco products - and it also seems that "English" tobacco was a by-name for a variety that we would normally term "Oriental" when sourced from Turkey or Syria. Legislation in Great Britain actually forbade commercial tobacco cultivation in order to protect the investment in colonial tobacco plantations - "In Scotland it was grown when our colonial trade was interrupted by the American war."
So - one more source of the confusion between the terms "English" and "Latakia" when referring to varieties of tobacco, and blends containing them...

 

[papipeguy]

Interesting read. Thanks.

 

[misterlowercase]

Along the same lines as the Mr. Prescott quote, we have this,

from B.S. Taylor, Pipe and quid: an essay on tobacco (1890)
"We have heard the tobacco user that the weed was food and drink to him, but never thoroughly believed him until a British parliamentary report on adulteration set forth the following schedule: sugar,alum, lime, flour or meal, rhubarb leaves, saltpetre, fuller's earth, starch, malt, cumin, chromate of lead, peat, moss, molasses, burdock leaves, lamp-black, gum, red dye, black vegetable dye, red licorice, scraps of newspapers, cinnamon stick, cabbage leaves and straw-brown paper."
btw,

here's a pretty good thread about the history of Latakia, citing many older sources,

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/history-of-latakia-blends
If your library has a copy of Memories of a Victorian, 1933 by Edgar Jepson, it may be worth a quick glance..."...as good as the Durbar mixture, for we went no further East for our mixtures than Turkey and its latakia ; not till the nineties did we reach the Syrian mixture."
...and these googbooks may be worth a skim too, ifya ain't already...
Smoking in British Popular Culture 1800-2000: Perfect Pleasures

By Matthew Hilton
The Social History of Smoking

By G.L. Apperson
Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization

By Iain Gately
...an odd duck, coming from the non-western perspective, and quite interesting is

Balkan Smoke: Tobacco and the Making of Modern Bulgaria

By Mary C. Neuburger
Good thread, thanks for the post!

 

[phred]

Yay! More links - thanks, y'all! The Mary Neuburger looks fascinating...
Here's the Google Books edition of F.W. Fairholt's "Tobacco: Its History and Associations".
I've also been perusing Tobacco: Its History, Cultivation, Manufacture, and Adulterations by Andrew Steinmetz, 1857.

 

[jah76]

Phred in that spirit, I really enjoyed Tobacco by Ian Gately. I usually give most books away when I'm done but that one made the bookshelf.