Tobacco

   As early as the 16th century, the Imperial Library of the Habsburg government in Vienna held volumes written by Dutch pharmacists who accompanied Spanish and Portuguese voyages to South America. They were quick to note that local aboriginal peoples smoked, either ceremonially or therapeutically, an aromatic plant that reputedly had an analgesic effect upon headaches. First planted in Upper Austria in 1648 and in Lower Austria in 1649, its use spread throughout the 17th century. By 1723, the Habsburg government, eager to capitalize on the popularity of tobacco use, established a state-run factory in the Lower Austrian town of Hainburg to process snuff and cigars. The region would become the center of Austrian tobacco manufacture, which Emperor Joseph II made a state monopoly in 1784.

   Production and consumption of tobacco grew sharply throughout the entire Habsburg Empire in the 19th century. Cigarettes appeared in 1865; by 1907–1908 their consumption matched, then outdistanced, that of cigars.

   The Austrian Tobacco Monopoly (Österreichische Tabakregie or Austria Tabak) continued to be a profitable state enterprise for both the First and Second Republics. By 1995, the company had become a corporate conglomerate, with holdings and managerial responsibilities in areas far from tobacco production, such as sporting goods. In 2003, the Austrian State Holding Company relinquished its control over tobacco production by selling its 41 percent share in the company’s equity to a British firm for 769 million euros.

   See also Agriculture; Economy.