[carefulfungi]

> cigarettes never threatened democracy

Off topic, but I bet a book on tobacco cultivation/history would be fascinating. Tobacco cultivation relied on the slave labor of millions and the global tobacco market influenced Jefferson and other American revolutionaries (who were seeing their wealth threatened). I've also read that Spain treated sharing seeds as punishable by death? The rare contrast that makes Monsanto look enlightened!

[roryirvine]

Mm, definitely. I think it's probably the cash crop that has historically been the most intertwined with politics, even more so than sugar.

Central America, the Balkans, the Levant. The Iroquois and Algonquians. Cuba. The Medicis and the Stuarts. And, as you say, revolutionary Virginia and Maryland. Lots of potential there for a grand narrative covering 600 years or more!

(And, to gp: yes, it absolutely did threaten governments, empires, and entire political systems!)

[throwaway27448]

Distinguishing between the economic and politics seems impossible—hence the term "political economy". Splitting the two was a bad decision.

[djkivi]

Something like The Prize for the tobacco industry could be very interesting!