According to
archaeological discoveries, the use of tobacco dates to around
the first century B.C. when the Mayas, a highly cultured people in Central America,
smoked the tobacco leaf in sacred and religious ceremonies. Between 470 and
630 A.D. some of the Mayas began to move as far as the Mississippi Valley. The
Toltecs, who created the mighty Aztec Empire, borrowed the smoking custom from
the Mayas who remained behind. Two castes of smokers emerged
among them. Those in the Court of Montezuma, who mingled tobacco with the resin
of other leaves and smoked pipes with great ceremony after their evening meal;
and the lesser Indians, who rolled tobacco leaves together to form a crude cigar.
The Mayas who
settled in the Mississippi Valley spread their custom to the neighbouring tribes.
Theses tribes adapted tobacco smoking to their religion and
begun to believe that their god, almighty Manitou revealed himself in the rising
smoke. The Arawak Indians of the Amazon adapted tobacco to their religious rituals.
In 1492, while Christopher Columbus was exploring West Indies, he observed the
Indians rolling leaves to form a cylinder, then lighting one end and inhaling
the smoke from the other. As a friendly gesture, the Arawak Indians presented
him with a gift of the aromatic leaves they prized so highly.
In 1943 Ramon
Pan, a monk who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage, gave lengthy descriptions
about the custom of taking snuff. He also described how the Indians inhaled
smoke through a Y-shaped tube. Inserting the two ends at the top of the tube
into their nostrils, they placed the other end in the smoke rising from the
burning leaves. The word "tobacco" was used to refer not to
the herb, but to the tube through which the smoke was inhaled.
In 1499, the explorer Amerigo
Vespucci noticed that the American Indians had a curious habit of chewing green
leaves mixed with a white powder. They carried two gourds around their necks
-- one filled with leaves, the other with powder. First, they put leaves in
their mouths. Then, after dampening a small stick with saliva, they dipped it
in the powder and mixed the powder with the leaves in their mouths, making a
kind of chewing tobacco.
Jacques Cartier, on his
second voyage to Canada in 1535, noted that he had seen the Indians smoking
pipes. "In Hochelaga, at the head of the river in Canada, grows a certain herb
which is stocked in large quantities by the natives during the summer season,
and on which they set great value. Men alone use it, and after drying it in
the sun, they carry it around their neck wrapped up in the skin of a small animal,
like a sac, with a hollow piece of stone or wood. When the spirit moves them,
they pulverize this herb and place it at one end, lighting it with a fire brand,
and draw on the other end so long that they fill their bodies with smoke until
it comes out of their mouth and nostrils as from a chimney. They claim it keeps
them warm and in good health. They never travel without this herb."
The newly arrived
tobacco in Europe was treated as medicine. Jean Nicot was the
French ambassador to Portugal in the 1560s. When he returned to Paris, he brought
tobacco with him. He cured Queen Catherine de Medici's chronic headaches with
a powder made of tobacco leaves. The French Court discovered snuff.
In 1638 one of
the ships of Swedish Shipping Company, Söder Kompanier returned to Stockholm
with tobacco from a journey to the Swedish colony at the mouth of the Delaware
River. It was the initial import as well as first introduction of tobacco in
the Swedish market. Within a short period, tobacco became a
major trade item and the farmers became curious to cultivate tobacco in Sweden.
In 1725 Jonas
Alströmer, who was the first farmer, succeeded in planting of tobacco in Sweden.
His plantation began to grows rapidly and reached to 35 000 plants within a
few years and by 1732 it had grown to 130.000 plants. Tobacco
became one of the most important products for Swedish economy and remained as
a vital item all the way to the 19th century. The use of tobacco in various
forms continued to grow and the authorities imposed a tobacco tax to control
consumption of tobacco. Swedes had to pay tax for smoking according to social
rank. Nobility, priests and burghers had to pay a one-dealer silver to smoke
and a 16 öre silver coin to use snuff. The tax for farm hands and maids was
four öre. Soldiers, boatmen and miners from Sala were exempt from tax.
In 1741 a law was introduced
that prohibited everyone under the age 21 to smoke. Actually this legislation
indirectly accelerated the use of snuff in Sweden.
During the 1700s, inhaling
of snus through nose was a fashion for Swedes. At the end of the 1700s, Swedes
invented tucking snuff that is known today as oral snus. This type of oral snuff
is used not only in Sweden, even in USA, North and Central America, Algeria,
Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa.
Financial status played
a vital role in favouring the use of oral
snuff instead of nasal snuff. Snuff was considered as luxury
products. So only the Aristocrats and Bourgeoisies could use snuff. But when
the ordinary people found new method of taking snuff by mouth, snuff became
quickly popular and ousted more expensive chewing tobacco.
In 1822, Jacob
Fredrik Ljunglöf began manufacturing snus. Within a few years, he became
a well known snus producer. His trademark was known as Number
One (Ettan).
Another brand known as
General Snus
was immerged as a general type of snus, i.e. a snus without its own brand. A
recipe for a general snus was made based on available ingredients at the time.
Other old brands such as
Röda Lacket from Norrköping, Friskens Norrlandssnus from Hudiksvall, Prestsnus
from Gothenburg and Stockholmssnus from Kockums in Malmö were also widely distributed.
In 1860 Jacob Fredrik’s
son Knut Ljunglöf (1833-1920) took over the business. Knut had inherited his
father's passion for snus and the quality of the snus. He tested himself day’s
production, before he allowed it to be sold. The invention of tinfoil was very
favourable to marketing snus. Wrapped in tinfoil (a metal foil made of zinc
or lead) was used to distribute snus even further from Stockholm. This boosted
snus market significantly.
Pope Leo XII was One of
Ljunglöf's most prominent customers. Swedish emigrants in America were another
vital customer for Ljunglöf's snus. During the famine years, one fourth of the
Swedish population immigrated to America. Many emigrants started to produce
snus using the commonly known method with the longer curing process. They copied
names for their snus from their old homeland, but the taste for their snus was
not like the Swedish type, and definitely not like Ljunglöf's snus. Of the emigrants
distress bear the following words from the newspaper "Göteborgs-Posten" in year
1869, some testimony: ”The real trouble for
the Swedes is that tolerable snus can't be bought for love or money."
The Ljunglöf's snus was
a monopoly in the market. There was only one producer in the USA in the beginning
of the 20th century, which was little bite larger than Ljunglöf. Ettan’s rank
was two in the world, with constantly growing sales. The death of Knut Ljunglöf
was a blow to the expansion of Swedish
snus. The threat of a state tobacco monopoly became, with the outbreak of
the First World War, reality. The profit from the tobacco industry was going
to be used to build the Swedish pension fund. When the Swedish tobacco monopoly
became a fact, Knut let his son, Robert, handle the redemption of the snus production.
In 1915 Ettan
was thus nationalized, together with all other tobacco factories. The government's
representative who evaluated the company was astounded to see such vast quantities
of Virginia tobacco in a snus producers stock. But Robert Ljunglöf answered
with the obvious: Otherwise it wouldn't be Ettan!
In 1914 Parliament decided
to bring all the manufacture of tobacco products in Sweden under state monopoly.
At the time of its introduction the monopoly brought together an enormous variety
of snuffs that included 103 different brands.
In 1919 almost 7.000 tonnes
was consumed in Sweden this year. Divide this figure by the number of adult
men at the time, i.e. 2 million, and you get an annual consumption of 3.5 kg
(7 lbs.) per person. After 1919 consumption began to drop as the use of cigarettes
increased. This change coincided with Sweden's change from an agricultural society
to an industrial society.
The monopoly was broken
up in 1961. The consumption of snus declined from 7.000 tonnes to 2.400 tonnes
over a period of half a century. But in 1969 demand for snuff rose again following
increasing publicity about the dangers of smoking.
In 1970 Swedish authority
imposed certain criterion for snus production. Snuff is counted as foodstuff,
which improved drastically the quality of snus to reduce the risk of illness
related to snus used. The recopies for snus have modified according to food
legislation. In 1973 the first portion snuff was introduced in Sweden.
In 2001 Gustavus is launched
in Sweden - challenging the Swedish Match dominance
Currently, Sweden is the
dominant supplier of snus in the Nordic market with about one million snuff
users (or "snus" as it is called in Swedish). More than half of these are former
smokers. Women account for slightly more than 10 percent of "snus" consumers.
Furthermore, snuff
has strong traditions in Northern Europe, North America, Africa and some countries
in Asia