UNTITLED ESSAY

 The emergence of a stable Atlantic trade system brought many new and different commodities to Colonial and European consumers. Many of these helped to bring people together in strange and sometimes unexpected ways, influenced colonial development in the New World, and had a lasting impact on the economies of European nations. Of the many commodities to emerge in the early Atlantic world, few had the enduring impact on the trade and economy of the early Atlantic world as tobacco and liquor. These commodities greatly helped to foster trade and interaction among different cultures, strengthened economic standings, and remain, for good or ill, among the most popular and enduring.

Almost every Amerindian tribe encountered by European explorers in the Americas was found to cultivate and use of tobacco; it was used in religious and folk healing rituals, as well as used recreationally (Mancall, 2004). From Samuel de Champlain’s explorations in the North to Jean de Léry’s travels in Brazil, and the Conquests of Mexico and Peru, European accounts of how the natives would use tobacco abound, in the historical record. Many of these European explorers’ described their first encounters with this strange plant and curious practices of its use. For example, in the account of two of Columbus’ men, Rodrigo de Xerez and Luis de Torres, they describe how many of the natives they met carried “glowing coal in their hands” which they described as being “like small muskets made of paper” (De Las Casas, cited in Burns, 2006). They then describe the process of lighting one end on fire, after which they “inhaled and drank the smoke at the other [end]”, declaring, “The people called these small muskets tobacco” (De Las Casas, cited in Burns, 2006).

It is significant to remember that this was a strange sight for a European observer of the time, as Europeans did not smoke anything, and were completely unaccustomed to this practice. In Europe, things were burned for their smell, such as incense, but these were not directly inhaled (Burns, 2006). Nevertheless, Columbus and his men repeatedly came across smoking natives, and the more often that these first Europeans encountered this practice “the less grotesque it seemed” (Burns, 2006). In fact, by the time that Rodrigo de Xerex, returned to Spain, he had become, by all accounts, addicted to the practice (Burns, 2006). It is revealing that the reaction of his neighbors, who had absolutely no precedent for this, fell on the side of superstition, as they considered him possessed by a demon and turned him over to the Inquisition, which stripped him of land and property, and imprisoned him for several years (Burns, 2006).

Because of its addictive qualities, tobacco was a cash crop waiting to happen. An almost immediate market for it was created among the various European sailors traversing the Atlantic and Caribbean in the middle and latter parts of the sixteenth century (Macnall, 2004), suggesting a rapid pattern of spread among those for whom it was readily accessible. Portuguese, French and Spanish settlers in Latin American and the Caribbean soon developed the habit, and were more than willing to cultivate it for use and trade (Davis, 1974). As more sixteenth century Europeans ventured across the Atlantic to the New World and back, to tobacco steadily made its way from the Americas to one European nation after another (Burns, 2006). Once people were able to overcome their initial revulsion and fear, they then studied tobacco for its perceived medicinal uses, recommending the leaves for the relief of a plethora of ailments (Mancall, 2004). One such researcher, a doctor from Seville named Nichals Monardes, published a list of various medical applications of tobacco in 1574, which was quickly translated into every major European language (Macnall, 2004). During a plague outbreak in England, in 1603, doctors proscribed tobacco to help ward off the disease and speed recovery (Burns, 2006). All of this helped to increase awareness of, and demand for, tobacco from the New World colonies.

This demand also presented the struggling English Virginia colony with economic opportunity. For the English, tobacco was implicitly tied with Sir Walter Raleigh. Although he may not have introduced tobacco to England, he was certainly its largest advocate in England (Knapp, 1988). As a principle motivator for English colonization in Virginia, it was vital that this “miraculous Virginian herb” (Knapp, 1988) be presented as a not only economically viable, but vital. Therefore, Raleigh’s servant, Thomas Harriot penned A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1588), in which he attempted both to legitimize Raliegh’s struggling North American colonial endeavor, and entice further investment by exalting the amazing properties of tobacco (Knapp, 1988).

By the close of the sixteenth century, tobacco supply was still low in England, and prices remained exorbitant, from 12 to 90 shillings a pound (Davies, 1974). In Virginia, between 1612 and 1616, however, tobacco cultivation exploded, and rose to such an extent that Virginia’s governor was compelled to insist, by decree in 1616, that all tobacco farmers plant two acres of corn for themselves, and two for every servant (Davis, 1974). In other words, in a relatively short span of time, colonists who had previously only struggled for substance, needed to be urged to grow food, instead of tobacco. Whether this was due to the throes of addiction or just plain greed, exports of Virginian tobacco to England rose exponentially over the next twenty years, from 60,000 pounds in 1619 to a million and a half pounds in 1638 (Davis, 1974).

Tobacco from Virginia and Maryland soon overtook their Caribbean competition, and in less than a century, annual tobacco exports to England rose to over 26 million pounds, of which about 16 million pounds was resold throughout other European markets (Davies, 1974). The impacts of the English domination of the tobacco trade were deep and varied. Most significant, however, were the impacts of the expansion of tobacco plantations on Amerindian tribes of Virginia and Maryland, and an increased demand for slaves from Africa.

In Virginia and Maryland, small farms rapidly grew into vast tobacco plantations, which in turn necessitated the clearing and development of large tracts of land. This had a devastating impact on Amerindian tribes, as it encroached on hunting and farming territory that they relied on for subsistence (Elliot, 2006). Reproachment from tribes was met with indifference, then outright hostility and violence (Elliot, 2006). What's more, increased tobacco production on these large plantations required the import of greater numbers of slaves, as well, sparking a massive influx of forced African migration (Benjamin, Hall, & Rutherford, 2001; Bird, 2008).

The demand for slave labor from Africa came from all across the Western Atlantic. Slaves worked in the Spanish mines of Mexico and Peru and on plantations in the Caribbean (Elliot, 2006). However, with the tobacco trade sparked a radical shift in the pattern of trade in the New World, as Virginian dominance of the market compelled French and Spanish colonies in the Caribbean to switch from tobacco to sugar production (Davies, 1974). This shift necessitated an increase in the available labor force on several islands, which in turn, sparked a greater demand for slaves (Bird, 2008).

This change in trade and production in the New World brought another unintended consequence, however. As the demand in Europe for sugar increased, so did its by-product, molasses, and it was around this time that rum started appearing everywhere that Europeans “were engaged in their New World Errand-running” (Curtis, 2006). Before rum, the majority of alcoholic beverages consumed and traded in the New World were mainly ciders and ales in the North, brandy and wines in the Spanish, French, and Portuguese colonies, gin from Dutch seamen and traders, and a variety of fermented and undistilled native beverages of varying alcoholic fortitude among the Amerindian populations (Holt, 2006; Curtis, 2006). Colonists even invented new alcoholic beverages, as one Virginia farmer, George Thorpe, described in 1620, “Wee have found a waie to make soe good drink of Indian Corne I have diverse times refused to drinke good stronge English beare [beer] and chose to drinke that” (Cited in Kosar, 2010). This American whiskey became so popular that colonial officials felt compelled to take legislative action to “temporarily curb or suspend distilling” to maintain supplies of grain production for bread-making (Kosar, 2010). Alcoholic beverages, clearly, made up a vital part of the colonial world that affected many aspects of daily life.

These Atlantic colonists consumed an extraordinary amount of alcohol, as ciders, wines, brandies, and rums, and eventually, whiskey were imbibed with almost every meal (Holt, 2006; Mendelson, 2009). Much like tobacco, alcoholic beverages were believed to be healthy, and to have medicinal benefits (Salinger, 2002). They were, in many cases, “regarded as food, and supplemented” the often dull and routine foods colonists endured (Salinger, 2002). There was healthy trade in all of these alcoholic beverages, from European countries to their colonies, and then among the colonies themselves (de Bruyn Kops & Henriette, 2007; Burns, 2003). That each European colony seemed to have their own particular style of alcoholic beverage, as well as access to the alcoholic beverages of their European parents, seemed to foster a highly motivated cycle of trade among the various colonies. This brought whiskey from New England to consumers in Spanish South America, Spanish and French brandies wines to the Caribbean, and Caribbean rums to North America and Europe.

Furthermore, the rum industry established a direct connection from North America to Africa, as rum was shipped from English North American colonies to Africa for slaves, slaves were brought to work in the sugarcane plantations of the Caribbean, and molasses was sent to from these for distillation into rum (Kosar, 2010). By the start of the eighteenth century, whiskey produced from rye, corn, and wheat, George Thorpes “soe good drink of Indian Corne”, began to eclipse the popularity of rum among many English colonists, but never fully replaced it (Burns, 2003). The rise in popularity of whiskey is partly based on the convenience of storing and selling wheat, grain, or corn. Farmers would sell their surplus crops, and while not everyone wanted to buy a foodstuff, everyone used alcoholic beverages, so, economically it made more sense to distil their surplus (Meecham, 2009).

Most importantly, however, alcoholic beverages were an important part of the fabric of colonial social life throughout the New World (Salinger, 2002). As colonial settlements grew into thriving villages and towns, public houses and taverns became an integral part of the colonist’s social structure. For example, shopkeepers often kept a keg near the entrances to their establishments allowing people to drink freely in the hopes of enticing better business (Burns, 2003), and successful business transactions routinely involved the passing of a jug or the draining of a keg (Burns, 2003). When people visited one another, alcoholic beverages were offered as a show of hospitality, and colonists enjoyed gathering around the punchbowl for a rum punch, which “was especially popular in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania” (Curtis, 2006). Colonists from every gender, station, occupation, and age young and old enjoyed alcoholic beverages at almost every opportunity, weddings and funerals, even in schools (Burns, 2003). From the fermented ciders of the Puritans to the Crown mandated vineyards in Virginia (Mendelson, 2009), from the rum distilleries of the English colonies, to the Spanish and French wineries in the South, Early Atlantic colonists were not only accepting of alcohol, but seemed to thrive on it.

People would congregate in two places in a colonial town, either in a church or in a tavern (Salenger, 2002). The advent of the tavern in colonial life helped to establish a public sphere for the exchange of ideas, which may not have developed in the colonial world as early as it did, had it not been for the consumption of alcoholic beverages (Salenger, 2002). The tavern created a sort of de facto congregational forum, secular in nature, where the free exchange of different ideas could pass from person to person, likely even from community to community (Salenger, 2002). Additionally, such meeting places offered a sense of separation from the spheres of home, work, church, or government, allowing a zone free from direct control of the demands of those areas of life. This provided a necessary respite from the difficult lives lead by many in the colonies. Most importantly, however, it is because of these factors that it was as much in the taverns as in the legislative houses that revolution was born. In fact, many times, the legislative house was the tavern (Adams, J., 1774, cited in Burg, 2007).

Across the Atlantic world from Mexico City to Boston, to Paris, a similar scene played itself out, as dissident groups routinely met in taverns and public houses to plan acts of defiance or war against their respective crown. Disgruntled farmers, merchants, sailors and dockworkers, well fortified and mulled on their drink of choice, often provided the backbone of the “angry mob”, much feared by colonial government and regent alike, and provocateurs ranged from lecturing intellectuals to the tavern owner himself. Information was also spread through the unique subculture of the tavern, as public houses were frequently a necessary stop on journeys between towns, thus secrets and information conveniently and innocuously traveled from tavern to tavern and town-to-town (Salenger, 2002).

The tavern also represents a confluence of commodities. In many taverns across the Atlantic world, especially those in port cities, people from a variety of different backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, cultures, and families could meet, and enjoy beverages as exotic as the local brew, or as distant as their favorite drink from home. By the mid and late Atlantic period, many patrons smoked tobacco, which had circumnavigated the globe, and was starting to come back around again. The lower classes often chewed or smoked tobacco, but more refined tastes took to taking snuff (Burns, 2007). A similar distinction took place with alcoholic beverages, too, as the wealthy had their ports and brandies, while the working classes drank beers, but everybody drank distilled liquors (Bailyn, 2009).

The tavern in the Atlantic world is also indicative of the deep divisions that ran through the entire Atlantic period. They are in most cases the exclusive domain of males, mostly, though not exclusively, European men, or men of European origin. Of course, different taverns existed in towns and cities across the Atlantic world that reflected the varying socio-economic standing of their patrons; however, those patrons were rarely either Afro-American or Amerindian. This is not to say that Afro-Americans and Amerindians did not have access to alcoholic beverages, which is certainly not the case. Amerindians traded freely and eagerly with Atlantic colonists for various alcoholic beverages, and African and Afro-Americans slaves were often provided with some measure of fortified beverage or liquor (Burns, 2003; Salenger, 2002). However, these groups as a whole, and to a similar extent, women in general, were excluded from the culture that emerged around the tavern. Thus, the tavern in the colonial world can also be seen as an extension of European male dominance, an exclusive public place (Salenger, 2002).

In any case, both of these commodities were very important in helping to bring about a stable system of Atlantic trade. Together, they represent a major transmission of ideas, items, customs, and practices between the newly discovered Americas, and Europe. What’s more, they helped bring together Colonial and European communities, in ways that seemed to transcend cultural, religious, economic, and geographical barriers, and brought people together in unprecedented ways. Today, health consciousness has brought tobacco and liquor low. The banning of smoking in bars has altered the tavern culture as nothing before, and from which it is unlikely to recover. However, , these commodities remain historically important, as they greatly helped to build connections in trade and social interaction among different cultures, build and alter colonial economies, and shape the course of history and the lives of those who lived it.

References

Adams, J. (September 5, 1774) Diary Entry of, in L. H. Butterfield, ed., Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, pp. 122–124, Cited in Burns, 2003.

Benjamin, T., Hall, T., & Rutherford, D., (2001)  The Atlantic World in the Age of Empire.  Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing 

Bailyn, B. (2009) Soundings in Atlantic History: Latent Structures and Intellectual currents, 1500-1800. Denault, P. (Ed). Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.

Burg, D.A. (2007) Eyewitness to History: The American Revolution, Updated Edition New York, NY: Facts On File, Inc.

Burns, E. (2003) Spirits Of America: A Social History of Alcohol. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Burns, E. (2006) Smoke of the Gods: A Social History of Tobacco. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Byrd, A.X. (2008) Captives and Voyagers: Black Migrants Across the Eighteenth Century British Atlantic World. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press.

Curtis, W. (2006) And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails. New York, NY: Crown Publishers.

Davies, K.G. (1974) The North Atlantic World in the Seventeenth Century. Minneapolis, MN: Univeristy of Minnesota Press.

De Bruyn, K. & Henriette S. (2007) Northern World, Volume 32: Spirited Exchange: The Wine and Brandy Trade between France and the Dutch Republic in its Atlantic Framework, 1600-1650. Boston, MA: Brill Academic Publishers.

Elliott, John H (2006). Empires of the Atlantic World : Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830. New Haven, CT, USA: Yale University Press.

Holt, M.P. (2006) Alcohol: A Social and Cultural History. New York, NY: Berg Publishers

Kosar, K.R. (2010) Whiskey: A Global History. London:U.K.: Reaktion Books Ltd.

Macnall, P.C. (2004) Tales Tobacco Told in Sixteenth-Century Europe Environmental History, 9(4), pp. 648-678. Retrieved January 5, 2012 from JSTOR Database; document ID:3986264

Meacham, S.H. (2009) Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Mendelson, R. (2009) From Demon to Darling: A Legal History of Wine in America. Berkeley, CA: The Univerity of California Press

Monardes, N. (1574) Primera Y Segundo Y Tercera Partes de La historia Medicinal de Las Cosas que se Traen de nuestras Indias occidentals que suruen en Medicina, Sevilla, Spain, Cited in Macnall, 2004.

Salinger, S.V. (2002) Taverns and Drinking in Early America Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.