NOTES ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE TOBACCO MONOPOLY IN THE VICEROYALTY OF PERU (1752-1762)

Abstract

This paper presents the panorama of the production, consumption and fiscal impact of tobacco in the Viceroyalty of Peru around the mid eighteenth century, when the Court of Madrid, as part of the Bourbon reorganisation, established a state monopoly on the tobacco industry. The reasons and difficulties involved in its establishment are then analysed, in addition to the effects on the income of the Crown during the first years of operation of the new privilege or state monopoly. The limitations and vices of the viceregal administration are also the backdrop to this initial stage of the state’s tobacco monopoly, which covered most of the government of the Viceroy Count of Superunda (1745-1761), and part of the government of Manuel de Amat y Junyent (1761-1776).