Anno Regni Caroli II... Duodecimo. At the Parliament begun at Westminster the Five and twentieth day of April, An. Dom. 1660... [drop-head title:] An Act for Prohibiting the Planting, Setting, or Sowing of Tobacco in England and Ireland.

Bookseller Notes

James I, Charles I, and the interregnum Parliament had all tried to tax locally grown tobacco heavily enough to discourage its production; an act of 1652 finally banned the crop, since the taxes had merely encouraged evasion. To ensure the protection revenues coming from taxation of Virginian imports after the Restoration, this act renewed the earlier ban, apart from small quantities in medical gardens. (Demand had also increased, since Charles II brought over the French court's habit of taking snuff.) A proclamation of the ban was issued the following year.As with all such parliamentary records this was issued both on its own (hence the title-page) and as part of a collection of acts (hence the pagination - ESTC R233776). The act is particularly scarce on its own, being recorded in ESTC in two separate states in a total of three locations (BL, Folger, and St John's, Oxford), while the full collection is not common, with seven UK locations (not including the BL or Bodleian) and three in the USA. Other institutions hold parts or made-up sets, including the NYPL and the BL.