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The Whig Fable of American Tobacco, 1895–1913

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2006

LESLIE HANNAH
LESLIE HANNAH
Affiliation:
Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033. E-mail: lhannah@e.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
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Abstract

At the beginning of the twentieth century, U.S. tobacco manufacturers were not forging ahead of their leading European counterparts in technology, productivity, or managerial techniques. On some indicators, including per capita cigarette consumption, the United States strikingly lagged. Fiscal discrimination against cigarettes, amplified by the monopoly pricing, strategic choices, and organizational overload of the American Tobacco trust, were among the retarding factors.

“Of all things American, nothing is more so than the cigarette.”Written by an enthusiastic booster of the addiction (with the assistance of the American Tobacco Company) in 1916. See Young, Story, p. 4.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 42 - 73
Copyright
© 2006 The Economic History Association

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