The irrepressible Israel Putnam, “Old Put” as he would be called, brought back “three donkey loads” of Cuban Cigars to Connecticut following the British invasion of the Caribbean Island. It is believed that he had stashed some seeds for planting in the fertile Connecticut Valley as well. It is to him that we likely owe our enormous gratitude for the …

New Seville cigar factory finally finished, the largest industrial complex in the world, a “walled city” with more than 4,000 daytime inhabitants with its own chapel, rules and prison. Its workforce rolled 100,000 cigars a day.  Similar factories would later be established by the Spanish Crown in Mexico and the Philippines.

Virginia passes the Option Act making it possible to pay the clergy in money instead of tobacco.

Dutch traders who were responsible for a great deal of commerce around the globe brought the cigar back to Holland and, meandering their way to Russia found an cigar enthusiast in Catherine the Great who had her Cigars adorned with dainty swaths of silk to shield her regal fingers from the taint of tobacco.

Tobacco first planted as a cash crop in the Dominican Republic. A century later it was one of two largest cash crops, mostly exported to German principalities.

In Maryland, tobacco was legal tender for all salaries and debts, including those owed the government, at the rate of 1¢ per pound.

By this time cigar smoking was all the rage in Spain and the Royal Manufacturers of Seville was founded to consolidate the industry.

Growing tobacco was prohibited throughout France; capital punishment could be imposed.

Spanish King again rules that Cuban tobacco can be sold only to Spain. The edict creates a job opportunity for smugglers for the next 181 years.  Tobacco farmers, vegueros, rebel against the edict.

House of Commons in England votes unanimously “that the importation of Spanish tobacco is one of the causes of want of money within the kingdom.” England was undergoing a severe coin shortage, and would soon ban importation other than from their New World colonies.