A Counterblaste to Tobacco is a treatise written by King James VI and I in 1604. In it he expresses his distaste for tobacco and tobacco-smoking. It is one of the earliest anti-smoking publications.

Style and content

It is written in Early Modern English and refers to medical theories of the time (e.g. the four humours). In it James blames the Native Americans for bringing tobacco to Europe, complains about passive smoking, warns of dangers to the lungs, and decries tobacco's odour as "hatefull to the nose."

Effects and legacy

James's dislike of tobacco led him in 1604 to authorise Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, to levy an excise tax and tariff of six shillings and eight pence per pound of tobacco imported, or £1 per three pounds, a large sum of money for the time. This would be £90 per pound in 2024, or £198 per kilogramme. Because of the persistently high demand for tobacco in England and the negative effects on the economies of the American colonies, the king in 1624 instead created a royal monopoly for the crop. 150 years later the British utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham would cite A Counterblaste to Tobacco as an example of antipathy run wild.

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