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Marcy Norton, Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008)

Tyler Matsunaga

 

Marcy Norton’s Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures covers the impact of tobacco and chocolate in the lives of Europeans. Norton initially portrays the early interactions between Europeans and indigenous Mesoamericans as encounters where tobacco was used as an element of diplomacy, with leaders from both groups congregating together and using tobacco as a symbol of unity. The book also discusses the ways in which tobacco and chocolate were intertwined through indigenous peoples’ religious rituals, something that put them at odds with the Christian Spanish, who saw these commodities, because of the rituals associated with them, as rejections of Christianity that created conflict and called for the persecution of non-Christian natives. Despite the original condemnation of the commodities, chocolate and tobacco swiftly permeated European culture, transforming an indigenous ritual into a practice that impregnated important European practices and rituals. Chocolate and tobacco, for instance, became integrated into New World Christianity, being repurposed into rites designed to honor the Christian God.

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Indigenous woman making chocolate. Codex Tudela (c.1553).

As a result of European acceptance and appropriation of chocolate and tobacco, Norton is able to explain how these commodities became ingrained in European culture to the extent that they are even today. Although these goods were initially niche items consumed by explorers returning from the New World, having not even been included in shipping logs and labeled as personal effects of the sailors, Norton highlights how these goods became popular in Europe. Both sailors, who introduced Spanish peasants to the use of tobacco, and Andalusian elites, who initially imported it for personal use, played a key role in the diffusion of tobacco use throughout Spain. On the other hand, chocolate’s popularity in Europe trickled down from the elites to the working class, who, soon after its first arrival to Spain, turned it into a massively consumed stimulant. As a result of the increasing popularity of chocolate and tobacco, the Spanish crown turned them into tools of state power by monopolizing their production and importation, ensuring a steady stream of bullion and control of the market. Finally, Norton returns to the religious aspect of the goods, and covers their contributions to the development of Christianity in Europe. From their origins as indigenous commodities derided as symbols of native American paganism and idolatry, tobacco and chocolate traveled a long path to becoming widely used and morally justified according to church doctrine.

 

A focus on the state’s taxation and monopolization of chocolate and tobacco allows Norton to highlight the key role these commodities played in the rise of the state. In Iberia, the monopolization of the tobacco and chocolate industries was possible due to the distinction made regarding “regalía,” classifying them as goods solely distributable by the state. This model of monopolizing goods considered regalía were not original ideas, however, as the basis for this classification was based on the precedent set by the salt monopoly. Furthermore, the classification of tobacco and chocolate as regalía was also based on the similar classification of black pepper, whose origin in the New World was enough justification to allow for it to be considered regalía. In order to justify this monopolization, the state claimed that its control of tobacco and

would guarantee uniformity in quality, unite the fragmented kingdom through centralization, thereby ensuring free movement of goods, and ensuring provision. In practice, however, this classification as regalía affected different parts of society in different ways. For the poor in Iberia, the taxation set on tobacco and chocolate as regalía eased taxes on goods deemed as essential, as the state was able to generate revenue without excessively high tax rates on food. As such, the poor could elect not to consume tobacco and chocolate, thereby assisting, at least nominally, in alleviating some economic burden from them. Another group affected by the classification of these goods as regalía was the wealthy nobles. Similar to previous attempts at taxation of goods, known as “millones”, the nobles opposed the taxation of goods due to their normal status as tax exempt. Seeing themselves as “social betters” of the taxpaying classes, nobles believed taxation on consumable goods were unfair to their status. This justification is similar to that given by the third group affected by the classification of chocolate and tobacco as regalía, the clergy. Another group typically exempt from taxation, the clergy viewed their service to God as a justification against taxes. Furthermore, much of the pushback against blanket taxation from the state’s monopoly on tobacco and chocolate was from the view that these goods were widely used within the church. After their integration into European society, tobacco and chocolate became intertwined with Christianity, particularly within the clergy, whose use resulted in various dilemmas that changed the way tobacco and chocolate were seen, becoming an element of ritual in a similar way to the role they played in the hybridized Christianity of the New World. Despite this opposition, however, the classification of chocolate and tobacco as regalía allowed the state to override the privileges of both the nobles and clergy, thereby centralizing power in the hands of the state, strengthening the Spanish Crown.

 

In the history of tobacco and chocolate, the Mexican ecclesiastical council of 1585 represents a moment of vital importance. With its decision to persecute non-conforming Mesoamericans, the council condemned pre-Christian rituals and marked a significant shift away from the original uses of chocolate and tobacco, moving them in a direction approved by the Europeans. The new intolerance toward native practices highlights a turning point in the history of these goods, as the new meaning given to them by Christian explorers made chocolate and tobacco palatable to future Europeans and the Church. Therefore, 1585 represented a crucial moment in the global history of chocolate and tobacco, as the forced end of indigenous religion and customs allowed for chocolate and tobacco’s spread across Europe, launching their trajectories as Atlantic and global, rather than simply American commodities.

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This engraving highlighting the hybridization of Christian theology and indigenous beliefs that occurred in the New World features a cacao plant. Diego Valadés, The Great Chain of Being from Rhetorica Christiana (1579).

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As tobacco proliferated and become a staple in the lives of many in the Iberian peninsula and the rest of Europe, it was portrayed as animalistic and uncivilized. David Teniers the Younger, Monkeys Smoking and Drinking (c. 1660)

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