Cigar History
Around 1592, the Spanish ship San Clemente brought 50 kilograms (110 lb) of tobacco seed to the Philippines over the Acapulco-Manila trade route. The seed was then distributed among the Roman Catholic missionaries, where the clerics found excellent climates and soils for growing high-quality tobacco on Philippine soil.
1600: ENGLAND: Sir Walter Raleigh persuades Queen Elizabeth to try smoking from leafs brought back on ships1601: Smoking is introduced, and rapidly becomes popular while clerics denounce it.1603: ENGLAND: Doctors, upset that tobacco is being used by people without a physician's prescription; complain to King James I.1604: ENGLAND: King James I : A Covnter Blast to Tobacco
1604: ENGLAND: TAXES: King James I increases import tax on tobacco 4,000% from 2 pence/lb to 6 shillings 10 pence/lb.
1605: ENGLAND: Debate between King James I and Dr. Cheynell.1606: SPAIN: King Philip Ill decrees that tobacco may only be grown in specific locations including Cuba, Santo Domingo, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Sale of tobacco to foreigners is punishable by death.1606 : America and advertising begin to grow together. This tobacco was the 1st heavily advertised product in America. 
1618-48: ENGLAND: SIR WALTER RALEIGH, popularize of tobacco in England, is beheaded for treason. Upon Raleigh's tobacco box, found in his cell afterwards, is the inscription,
"Comes meus fuit illo miserrimo tempo." ("It was my comfort in those miserable times.")
Smoking became familiar throughout Europe in pipes in Britain and by the mid-16th century and, half a century later, tobacco started to be grown commercially in America.
