Comprehensive Smoking Education Act - The Economy of Cigarettes

The Economy of Cigarettes

As mentioned above, in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War, tobacco helped finance the revolution by serving as collateral for loans that the Americans borrowed from France. The beginning of the Cigarette industry began by the ingenuity of James Bonsack. Who created the first cigarette making machine that allowed his company to mass produce a cheap, easy to use and easy to light way for Americans' to get their tobacco fix. People no longer had to roll their on smokes with paper or fill their pipes. It was a quick and convenient way for Americans to smoke. It wasn't until the 1900s that the cigarette became the major tobacco product made and sold. Still, in 1901 2.5 billion cigarettes were sold, while 6 billion hand rolled cigars were sold. In 1902, the British Phillip Morris set up a New York headquarter to market its cigarettes including the now famous Marlboro brand. Company were producing 10 million cigarettes in their first year and had an exponential increased to 1 billion 5 years later. The number reached 300 billion by the year 1944 and created a multimillion dollar business in the United States. The tobacco industry has announced a 5.65 billion dollar surplus in 1992 and one company alone pay 4.5 million dollar in taxes that year. These tobacco companies clearly generated a lot of revenue for the United States.