Book contents
- Agrarian Puerto Rico
- Agrarian Puerto Rico
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1 The Myth of the Disappeared Legion of Proprietors
- 2 The Coffee Economy
- 3 The Sugar Industry
- 4 The Tobacco Industry
- 5 Economic Transformation and Demographic Change
- 6 Land Concentration/Fragmentation Using Land Tax Records
- 7 Rates of Landownership in Rural Puerto Rico
- 8 Land Tenure Patterns Using Census Data
- 9 Land Use
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - The Tobacco Industry
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2020
- Agrarian Puerto Rico
- Agrarian Puerto Rico
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1 The Myth of the Disappeared Legion of Proprietors
- 2 The Coffee Economy
- 3 The Sugar Industry
- 4 The Tobacco Industry
- 5 Economic Transformation and Demographic Change
- 6 Land Concentration/Fragmentation Using Land Tax Records
- 7 Rates of Landownership in Rural Puerto Rico
- 8 Land Tenure Patterns Using Census Data
- 9 Land Use
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In contrast to sugarcane and coffee, tobacco is native to the Caribbean and its cultivation dates to pre-Columbian times. The plant was known among the Tainos who inhabited the major Caribbean islands as cogiba, whereas tabaco was the name of the pipe they used to smoke it. The church opposed the use of tobacco because it figured prominently in indigenous religious ceremonies, which were considered “idolatrous,” and accordingly prevented tobacco’s introduction in Spain until the middle of the sixteenth century. Exports of tobacco were first authorized in 1614 with the standard colonial monopolistic restriction that all transactions had to pass through Seville’s Casa de Contratación.
- Type
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- Information
- Agrarian Puerto RicoReconsidering Rural Economy and Society, 1899–1940, pp. 91 - 109Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020