tobacco trade | Dutch Pipe Smoker

Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

One of the most remarkable episodes in the history of the use of tobacco in the Netherlands is no doubt the period when the entire tobacco-trade and manufacturing was declared a state-monopoly by order of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The story goes that at a ball Napoleon saw a lady who wore the most magnificent and expensive jewels. He asked who she was and it turned out to be that she was the wife of a tobacco-merchant. The emperor exclaimed in amazement: “What a lot of money that man must earn!” This reaction is said to have resulted in the imperial decree of 29 December 1810, which introduced the tobacco-monopoly in France. This led to the decree of 26 December 1811 which introduced and finally settled the state-monopoly of tobacco in the Netherlands.

Tobacco merchant

The tobacco-trade, which provided a livelihood for hundreds of merchants, workmen, and shopkeepers, and was among the few sources of income that were left, reverted to the Emperor. He made his people buy up all the tobacco and afterwards sold it again for 5 times the price he paid! In this way the “big tobacco-dealer” gained huge amounts of money, which he could well use to carry out his warlike plans. These few lines practically tell the whole story of the Dutch state-monopoly. But many details of the organization of this are so interesting that they are certainly worth telling about.

Empire pipe

Napoleon’s tobacco policy was all-embracing. This is clearly illustrated by the first part of the above-mentioned decree of 26 December 1811: “Only the Board of the United Rights is entitled to buy tobacco-leaves. Anybody who is not a planter, is forbidden to have tobacco-leaves in his house. Tobacco-leaves may not circulate without a waybill. Anybody who wants to grow tobacco is obliged to give notice of this to the burgomaster of his municipality before the 1st of March of every year, stating where the piece of land he wants to plant, is situated, its size, the number of plants he wants to grow there, and the space he intends to leave between the plants.” Further the minimum size of an area to be planted with tobacco was fixed at 4000 m², while the price was to be announced every January. With the above mentioned waybill, the tobacco was to be taken to the appointed warehouses where cash money was paid for it. Keeping back any tobacco was most severely punished, namely by expulsion. High demands were also made upon the delivery of the tobacco. It had to be tied in neat bunches and was not to contain any buds or stalks.

Imperial tobacconist sign

Of course the retail trade was no less strictly organized: “Nobody shall store any other kind of manufactured tobacco but that which comes from the imperial factories. It is forbidden to store any other kind of tobacco. Only those who have been granted a licence by the Board may sell manufactured tobacco. They are not allowed to lay in any stock, except from the Board’s warehouses, situated in their district. Nor are they allowed to have in the house, any tools such as rasps, mills, cutting-frames, sieves or any other instruments whatsoever for the preparation of tobacco.” The already present stock was not forgotten and had also been taken care of: “From the 1st of November 1811 all planters, dealers, manufacturers, merchants, tobacconists and other sellers of tobacco will be obliged to inform the Officials of the United Rights of the quantity, origin and quality of the tobacco-leaves they possess. These will be inventoried, sealed, bought by the Board, and paid for in cash money on the central pay-office at…..”

Pack from the Imperial Tobacco Factory in Amsterdam plus a badge worn by the workmen

On the 1st of January 1812 the tobacco-sellers, to whom a licence had been granted, had to start selling. As appears from the instructions of the inspector of the United Rights, dated 24 December 1811: “Those sellers of tobacco who continue in office from the 1st of January are being notified that delivery of the tobacco, manufactured in the special storehouses of the Board, is to take place on the 29th, 30th, and 31st of the current month of December. Consequently, every seller is obliged to go there in order to receive the quantities, qualities and brands he thinks he will need. He must have his security-receipt with him.” On the 31 December 1811 further rules were published with which the retailers had to comply. “The sellers will not be allowed to lay in any stock of quantities under ten kilogrammes. They will have to have a way-bill. In the hands of the keeper of the private warehouse, they are to pay cash the price of the tobacco, as regulated by the decree of 22nd October last, except for the discount which shall be mentioned hereafter. They may not sell any tobacco at higher prices than those fixed for the sellers, nor may they sell inferior tobacco at the price of better quality tobacco on penalty of being prosecuted, having been found guilty of extortion. The discount, which, in accordance with section 57 of the decree of 12 January 1811, shall have to be granted to the sellers for short weight, has been fixed at 5 per 1oo. This will be deducted from the amount of tobacco which the sellers are to collect.”

Imperial tobacconist sign

“They will have to offer their tobacco for sale in jars, bearing names, showing from what factory the tobacco came, its brand and its price. They shall be obliged to arrange the above-mentioned tobacco in their offices or shops according to the factories, brands and prices, in order to facilitate the verification by officers. In the place where the tobacco is being sold, they are to hang a list of the brands they sell, and outside the store they are to place a signboard. They will only be allowed to break the lead seal of the bags or casks of tobacco to be sent to then in the presence of officials of the Board who shall be called in to sign the waybill. If, however, there are no officials living in that place the seller will be allowed to break the lead seal. He may, however, always be required to show it. The sellers are free to unpack the tobacco and to pour it from one jar into another at will. But they will not be allowed to mix any tobacco. Not even the first quality tobacco of one factory with first quality tobacco of another. They will have to arrange the tobacco in their shops according to brands and grades and on every cask or other vessel they shall stick a label, indicating the factory where the tobacco was manufactured and its brand and grade. On no account are the sellers allowed to moisten the tobacco. The sellers will be obliged to provide themselves with scales and metrical weights, properly stamped and verified. With these weights they will not be allowed to make a combination equalling the old pound weight. They will keep accounts of what they sell, according to a system to be issued to them. It will be submitted to the verifications of the tobacco-officials.” And verify they did. There are records that the officials verified the books of a tobacconist in Haarlem 59 times in the period of almost a year.

Fist sale of duty-free tobacco after the French had fled. Notice the defeated Frenchman on the left

By the middle of November 1813 the Netherlands were in an uproar. The French officials and their Dutch confederates were packing up and fled their posts hastily. Everywhere the hateful signs of the “Régie des Droits réunis”, with the imperial eagle, were torn from the tobacco-shops and trampled upon. Only a few were left and ended up in our museums. Enormous quantities of régie tobacco fell a welcome prey to the Russian liberators, who did not prove to be too picky.. There must have been huge supplies of tobacco. In the city of Groningen the Russians found as much as 76.000 kg stored in two depots. Everywhere retailers got stuck with large stocks. For only few people wanted to buy the régie products when superior tobacco from overseas began to pour into the country once more. Probably the remaining state-monopoly tobacco was bought by the poor people of those days at reduced prices, or maybe it was used by the bee-keepers to smoke out the bees. Who knows?

Dutch pipe smokers in the 17th century

Around the 16th century, sniffing, chewing tobacco and especially pipe smoking slowly became the ways to use tobacco in the Netherlands.

In the 17th century smoking was becoming more and more common. There was smoke everywhere: in homes, shops, inns etc. The Netherlands as a trading nation, with Amsterdam as the centre, played an important role in the tobacco trade. English sources depicted the Dutch as chain smokers. And then to think it were English craftsmen, fighting in the army as mercenaries, who learned us to make what later became the famous Gouda pipes.

“A Dutchman without a pipe in Amsterdam is a national impossibility. A city without a house, a stage without an actor, a spring without flowers. A Dutchman could not feel blessed in Heaven without his pipe and tobacco.”

Peasants smoking

Smoking in the 17th century was a general phenomenon. In the pubs ready filled pipes were sold. Status and wealth were evident in the smoke tradition. For example, rich people owned a silver tobacco box. Poor people had to do with the ready filled pipes. Smoke attributes were a status symbol.

So anno 1750 the entrepreneurial Amsterdam merchant was in the right place at the right time in history. He could dispose of the necessary financial resources, knowledge and trade relations to get rich and successful in the tobacco trade.

Relatively soon the tobacco merchant became a lucrative and respected profession. He could mix imported foreign tobaccos with relatively inexpensive native tobaccos. By doing this the British traders could be outdone with lower market prices. The domestic supply of tobacco also made a welcome addition to the irregular supply of tobacco from Brazil, West Indies and later the East Indies.

Tobacco merchant

The cultivation of tobacco in the provinces of Utrecht and Gelderland especially took off thanks to the interplay (partnership) with the more world-oriented tobacco merchants from Amsterdam. These early capitalist merchants were willing to take (calculated) financial trading risks. Usually the final earnings were more than sufficient. This way they were able to finance the crop of the next year to ensure continuity.

Amsterdam became the most powerful centre of the Western European tobacco trade. Many harvest years adequate supplies of good quality tobacco were secured. At the end of the 17th century and throughout the 18th century the tobacco trade showed a strong expansion. For more than 150 years Amsterdam was the central storage depot and transit point of tobaccos from all corners of the earth.

Farming Maryland tobacco in a colony

Between 1600 and 1880 mainly the tobacco varieties of Spanish and Portuguese colonies (like Brazil) were shipped to Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Later supplemented by the American Virginia and Maryland (know in Holland as “baai”) tobaccos. Then in the late 18th century came our own colonial Sumatra, Java and Borneo varieties. After 1900 (to a lesser extent) Turkish, Greek and Russian oriental tobaccos were imported. All these varieties found their place in the Amsterdam and Rotterdam warehouses and were traded on the then famous trade fairs.

Inspecting of tobacco at Frascati aan de Nes in 1927

The glory days of (in particular) Amsterdam lasted (with interruptions during WWI and WWII) until the independence of (former colony) the Republic of Indonesia in 1948. After that the port cities of Hamburg and Bremen became the most important tobacco trading centres. Even the long time famous and only remaining tobacco trade place Frascati aan De Nes in Amsterdam disappeared. Nowadays the legendary building is still there as a theatre.

Ship Chandlers Warehouse. Take a closer look at the ornament above the door.

Although the “physical” market of tobacco in Amsterdam and Rotterdam has disappeared for over 65 years, the old warehouses are still scattered throughout the inner city to admire. One of them is Ship Chandlers Warehouse which was build in 1624. Downstairs was a tobacco shop and from upstairs the orders went out on little ships which then went to the bigger ships in the harbour. These days an expensive restaurant is housed in the building. Unfortunately the bombing of Rotterdam in 1940 has only left a few of those warehouses in that city.

So when you walk through the inner city of Amsterdam, lit up a pipe, take a good look around at the old buildings and let your imagination take you back several centuries.

Dutch Pipe Smoker

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Napoleonic imperial tobacco

Dutch tobacco trade