Between 1870 and 1920, tobacco use was endemic in Europe and North America, and cigar smoking was its most popular form.
To meet Canadian demand, entrepreneur cigar makers, many from the British Isles, Germany, and Russia, established hundreds of factories, large and small, in cities and towns from Victoria to the Maritimes. They hired and trained local men, women, even children to hand roll cigars using domestic and imported tobacco leaf.
In the early days, the finished cigars were tied into bundles and sold in bulk to vendors. The federal government sent officials to factory warehouses to collect taxes on cigars by weight or by the 1000a calculation too imprecise to ensure that taxes had been paid on every cigar sold. |
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![Young men add a touch of dignity—or nonchalance—to their image by posing with cigars in their mouths, late 1800s. Young men add a touch of dignity—or nonchalance—to their image by posing with cigars in their mouths, late 1800s.](/web/20071122185248im_/http://www.warmuseum.ca/tresors/cigares/images/cigar629.jpg) |
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![](/web/20071122185248im_/http://www.warmuseum.ca/tresors/cigares/images/spacer.gif)
Young men add a touch of dignityor nonchalanceto their image by posing with cigars in their mouths, late 1800s. CMC 2006.91.1 |
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