 Title page | |
| Author | James VI and I |
|---|---|
| Language | Early Modern English |
| Subject | Anti-tobacco |
Publication date | 1604 |
| Text | A Counter-Blaste to Tobacco atWikisource |
A Counterblaste to Tobacco is atreatise written byKing James VI and I in 1604. In it he expresses his distaste fortobacco andtobacco-smoking.[1] It is one of the earliest knownanti-smoking publications.
It is written inEarly Modern English and refers to medical theories of the time (e.g. thefour humours).[2] In it James blames theNative Americans for bringing tobacco to Europe, complains aboutpassive smoking, warns of dangers to the lungs and decries tobacco's odour as "hatefull to the Nose."[2]
James's dislike of tobacco led him in 1604[3] to authoriseThomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, to levy anexcise tax andtariff of sixshillings and eightpence per pound of tobaccoimported,[4] or £1 per three pounds, a large sum of money for the time. This would be £90 per pound in 2024, or £198 per kilogram.[5]
Because of the persistently high demand for tobacco in theKingdom of England and the negative effects on the economies of its colonies inBritish America, the King in 1624 instead created aroyal monopoly on tobacco.[3] 150 years later the Britishutilitarian philosopherJeremy Bentham would citeA Counterblaste to Tobacco as an example ofantipathy run wild.[2]
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Have you not reason then to bee ashamed, and to forbeare this filthie noveltie, so basely grounded, so foolishly received and so grossely mistaken in the right use thereof? In your abuse thereof sinning against God, harming your selves both in persons and goods, and raking also thereby the markes and notes of vanitie upon you: by the custome thereof making your selves to be wondered at by all forraine civil Nations, and by all strangers that come among you, to be scorned and contemned. A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horribleStigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse.
— James 1604[2]
