Behind the Bastards

CZM Rewind: Part One: How Cigarettes Invented Everything

January 6, 2026

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  • The history of cigarettes is intrinsically linked to the invention of many aspects of modern civilization, driven by the tobacco industry's need to create mass demand for its product. 
  • James Buchanan Duke revolutionized the industry by adopting the Bonsack machine, drastically increasing production efficiency and securing control over patent technology, which became a template for modern corporate patent usage. 
  • The tobacco industry pioneered modern mass marketing by using collectible trading cards, often featuring actresses or sports heroes, to incentivize youth smoking and establish the habit, thereby inventing the concept of commodity-connected collecting seen today in things like baseball cards and Pokémon. 
  • James Buchanan Duke pioneered modern capitalist marketing techniques, including collectible products (like trading cards) and sweepstakes, specifically to entice children into excessive cigarette consumption. 
  • Duke's aggressive advertising spending and consolidation efforts led to the first national billboard wars and the creation of the modern megacorporation structure, including vertical integration and the concept of the middle manager. 
  • The American Tobacco Company, under Duke, was one of the first entities to successfully create a global commodity standard for an individual consumer good, setting the stage for later globalization efforts by companies like McDonald's and Starbucks. 

Segments

Podcast Introduction and Rerun Notice
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(00:00:00)
  • Key Takeaway: The hosts are airing a rerun episode of Behind the Bastards due to Robert taking two weeks off.
  • Summary: The episode begins with advertisements for Airtasker and Odoo, followed by a nicotine warning. Robert Evans announces this is the first time the show has run two consecutive reruns, explaining he is taking a vacation instead of pre-recording content.
Cash Money Banter and Royal Kinks
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(00:03:06)
  • Key Takeaway: The hosts engage in banter regarding the phrase ‘cash money’ and briefly discuss private sexual details leaked about King Charles.
  • Summary: Robert reintroduces the phrase ‘cash money,’ much to Sophie’s embarrassment, while James Stout offers a British translation. The conversation briefly veers into discussing leaked private correspondence involving King Charles and Camilla.
Initial Thoughts on Cigarettes
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(00:05:35)
  • Key Takeaway: Cigarettes present a complex moral issue, balancing anti-prohibitionist views and cultural value against the industry’s historical deception regarding health risks.
  • Summary: The hosts acknowledge the difficulty in judging cigarettes, noting an anti-prohibition stance against government health restrictions. They recognize the cultural value of smoking, particularly in high-stress situations like immediately after a violent encounter. The primary historical issue is the tobacco industry’s massive deception about known health risks.
Prehistory of Tobacco Use
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(00:08:34)
  • Key Takeaway: Indigenous peoples, notably the Maya by the first century BC, used tobacco ritually via smoking, snuffing, and chewing, long before European contact.
  • Summary: Archaeological evidence confirms Maya use of tobacco in religious rituals by the first century BC, involving smoking and nasal inhalation. Tobacco cultivation spread from Central America to the Mississippi Valley between 400 and 700 AD. Christopher Columbus first encountered tobacco use in Hispaniola, observing natives using nose pipes and wrapping leaves like early cigars.
Indigenous Ritual Use and Medical Applications
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(00:11:16)
  • Key Takeaway: Pre-Columbian tobacco use was primarily ritualistic and psychotropic, involving high doses, but it also served practical medical functions like insect repellent and emetics.
  • Summary: Early tobacco consumption was often ritualistic rather than habitual, involving massive doses that could cause hallucinations, sometimes administered by leaders shotgunning smoke into others’ mouths. Tobacco oil was used externally as an effective insect repellent, and it was utilized internally as a remedy for constipation. Ingesting tobacco as a tea, however, could be toxic, with documented fatalities occurring in some ceremonies.
European Adoption and Early Colonial Production
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(00:19:27)
  • Key Takeaway: The Portuguese first cultivated tobacco for export, and by the 1730s, English colonies in Virginia were manufacturing significant quantities, primarily as snuff or chewed tobacco.
  • Summary: Despite initial xenophobic opposition in England, tobacco quickly took off after its introduction in 1564, mirroring the adoption pattern of coffee after papal approval. In the Americas, snuff and chewing tobacco were the dominant consumption methods because lighting pipes or cigars was inconvenient without easy fire sources. Cigarettes were initially the least favored form, often made from salvaged cigar butts.
The Dawn of Machine-Made Cigarettes
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(00:22:45)
  • Key Takeaway: The first near-modern cigarettes were manufactured by a French company in 1843, but the industry was transformed by the introduction of the Bonsack machine in the late 1880s.
  • Summary: Philip Morris established a major London cigarette factory shortly after the Crimean War, capitalizing on milder Turkish tobacco. In the US, the Civil War spurred growth, with firms like F.S. Kinney competing fiercely. The invention of the Bonsack machine allowed production to skyrocket from 9.8 million cigarettes in 1881 to 744 million in 1888, making hand-rolling obsolete.
Duke’s Patent Control and Marketing Strategy
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(00:45:18)
  • Key Takeaway: James Buchanan Duke secured a massive competitive advantage by secretly controlling the Bonsack patent royalties and then invented modern consumer marketing by using collectible trading cards to create demand for his mass-produced cigarettes.
  • Summary: Duke shrewdly secured a discounted royalty deal on the Bonsack machine, effectively controlling the technology and turning the patent system into a corporate lever. Realizing only 2% of smokers used cigarettes, he needed to create demand, leading him to use stiff cardboard inserts for advertising. These inserts featured collectible series like birds and baseball players, directly leading to the first instances of juvenile smoking driven by the desire to complete sets.
Duke’s Marketing Innovations
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(00:59:01)
  • Key Takeaway: Duke invented the concept of collectible products as advertisements to target children for cigarette sales.
  • Summary: Duke recognized that established tobacco consumers had fixed preferences, so he targeted children by using picture books as rewards for smoking up to 12,000 cigarettes. This strategy effectively invented the concept of collectible products used in advertising. This methodology is the ancestor of modern sweepstakes, Happy Meals, and Funko Pops.
Birth of American Tobacco
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(01:01:14)
  • Key Takeaway: Duke’s massive advertising budget ignited the first national billboard war and forced competitors to adopt similar spending, filling the countryside with visual ads.
  • Summary: Renaming his company American Tobacco, Duke spent nearly a quarter of his revenue on advertising, compelling competitors to match the expenditure. This competition initiated the widespread use of billboards and large public advertisements across the US. Duke’s actions also inadvertently contributed to the creation of modern patent law and the Monkey Wrench Gang.
Monopoly Formation and Structure
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(01:02:20)
  • Key Takeaway: Duke formed the American Tobacco Company consortium in 1890, achieving 90% market share by monopolizing production and sales.
  • Summary: The high cost of cigarette machines and advertising made it nearly impossible for new companies to enter the market. Duke strong-armed competitors into forming a monopoly to stop wasteful advertising competition, fixing prices and wages. This structure, featuring departments like Audit and LEAF managed by salaried executives, invented the modern megacorporation and the middle manager.
Global Commodity Invention
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(01:07:07)
  • Key Takeaway: Through the British American Tobacco Corporation, Duke invented the global commodity standard for individual consumer goods, ensuring worldwide consumption of the same branded product.
  • Summary: Duke aimed to convince nations that had never smoked to adopt cigarettes, partnering with Imperial Tobacco to form the British American Tobacco Corporation. He invented the idea that consumers globally should smoke the exact same branded cigarette, a concept preceding globalization seen later with McDonald’s and Starbucks. This effort established the cigarette as one of the first globalized individual consumer commodities.
Antitrust Action and Legacy
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(01:09:37)
  • Key Takeaway: The Sherman Antitrust Act forced the breakup of Duke’s massive trust, but the vertical integration made true competition impossible, resulting in an oligopoly.
  • Summary: The US Congress targeted American Tobacco for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act, as it controlled 75-85% of all US tobacco sales. Although the Supreme Court ordered the trust split into five companies in 1911, Duke’s complex weaving of supply chains meant perfect competition could not be restored. The resulting structure was an oligopoly where former competitors continued to collude on pricing.
Duke’s Final Acts and Death Toll
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(01:14:39)
  • Key Takeaway: Duke funded the electrical grid for the Carolinas and endowed Trinity College, which became Duke University, despite cigarettes becoming the deadliest artifact of the 20th century.
  • Summary: After peaking in tobacco, Duke moved into infrastructure, building the electrical grid for North and South Carolina. He bequeathed most of his fortune to Trinity College, leading to its renaming as Duke University, which now houses significant resources on tobacco history. By 1919, lung cancer was rare, but within 30 years, cigarettes became the deadliest artifact in human history, killing an estimated 100 million people in the 20th century.