It is thought that the first tobacco plants brought to the Old World were transported by Hernando Cortes, the vanquisher of Mexico, when he presented Charles V grains in 1518 (“The Early History” 328). Jaques Cartier was a Brenton navigator that made four expeditions to the New World, and during his second exploration, became focused on tobacco through his scrutiny of Canadian Native Americans (“The Early History” 328). Andre Thevet, a French explorer, went to Brazil in 1555, and when he returned to France in 1556, he took with him a tobacco plant and wrote about his discoveries in the Americas (“The Early History” 328). Three years after Thevet wrote about his journey, Jean Nicot, French ambassador to the Portuguese King, brought tobacco seeds to France when he met a Flemish mercantile on his way to Portugal (“The Early History” 329). Tobacco was gained the name nicotiana much to the ire of Thevet, for he complained that Nicot never went to the Americas and was not the first to bring a tobacco plant to France (“The Early History” 329). While Thevet wrote about his anger for tobacco’s name, he also denied that tobacco was of any use medically which aided the tradition of treatises that debated the wealth and merit of using tobacco (“The Early History” …show more content…
The first part was about the history of tobacco and focused on the aspects of its being a trade commodity in Spain. The second section focused on the consequences of bringing tobacco into the country. The third and final entry is about the remedy of such consequences (Bennett 1). Bennett argues that tobacco has been a cause in the decline in getting silver that would benefit the whole of English society (Bennett 3). Bennett also wrote about the prices and the damage that they cause to the economy, for people who become dependent on tobacco will pay whatever price that the Spanish traders require them to pay (Bennett 2). He also believed that their dependency would allow the Spanish King to continue to raise the prices which would feed the Spanish economy and the Spanish King while draining the economy (Bennett 4). Bennett is angered, for his Majesty the King of England received around sixteen thousand pounds a year from his patent on tobacco; however, the King of Spain received a hundred thousand pounds per year for the tobacco that is grown in his kingdom (Bennett 4). Bennett believed that this could be remedied by the prohibition of bringing tobacco in from Spain and only sourcing it from places where it grows best and at cheaper prices such as the Indies and Virginia (Bennett