Tobacco Asia

20 tobaccoasia Issue 1, 2025 January / February Figure 4. A gold tobacco pipe unearthed from the site where Zhang Xianzhong sank his silver in Jiangkou in 1646. Figure 3: The unknown area in white is the maritime trade monopoly of Portugal determined in the Treaty of Tordesillas and the Treaty of Zaragoza (Saragossa). The signing of these treaties established Spain's monopoly on trade in Europe and North and Central America for over 100 years, and formed a complete set of tobacco product discourse and narrative systems based on high-quality American air-cured tobacco in terms of the cigar culture building. Thereafter, with the strong export of industrial civi- lization and culture from Europe and the United States, they created a power of discourse with near monopoly for American cigars in the world. In contrast to Spain, Portugal won the maritime trade monopoly between Eu- rope and South America and Asia for more than 100 years, as well as gained the priority of spreading cigars to Asia. Considering ample profits brought by the spice trade in the Far East, Portugal had no business motivation to transport cigars made in the East back to Europe, eroding the global discourse power of cigars in Asia and China. II. Tracing the pathway of introducing American cigars into China in the 16 th century In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral discov- ered the Porto Seguro in Brazil during a westward detour of his fleet around the St. Nicholas Island. They continued their expedition to India after replenishing specialties in the Americas such as maize and tobacco there. Deemed as a precious commodity and medicine that meets the needs of permanent residents in the con- quered areas, tobacco became one of the first localized cultivar by the Portuguese. According to the findings of the Fed- eration of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA), a Portuguese fleet brought to- bacco cultivation to Goa, India in 1508 after stopping by Brazil [5] .

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