History of tobacco brought to Spain for its flowers, but "Now we use it to a greater extent for the sake of its virtues than for its beauty". John Hawkins was the first to bring tobacco seeds to England. William Harrison's "English Chronology" mentions tobacco smoking in the country as of 1573, before Sir Walter Raleigh brought the first "Virginia" tobacco to Europe from the Roanoke Colony, referring to it as "tobah" as early as 1578. In 1595 Anthony Chute published "Tabaco", which repeated earlier arguments about the benefits of the plant and emphasised the health-giving properties of pipe-smoking. The importation of tobacco
Tobacco in the United States colonists did not have to worry about scarcity of tobacco. This eventually led to tobacco being the main form of trade with England. Imports of tobacco into England increased from 60,000 pounds in 1622 to 500,000 pounds in 1628, and to 1,500,000 pounds in 1639. Such dramatic growth in demand for tobacco eventually led to overproduction of the commodity, and in turn extreme devaluation of tobacco. To compensate for the loss of value, farmers would add dirt and leaves to increase the weight, but lowering the quality. From the 1640s to the 1690s the value of tobacco would be highly