LOSSES IN THE TOBACCO TRADE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12071, 15 September 1902, Page 5

LOSSES IN THE TOBACCO TRADE.

By Telegraph.—Press Association.— London, September 12. British tobacconists state that the American Trust has lost a million and a-half sterling in a futile attempt to capture the British market.

Referring recently to the great conflict between the rival tobacco (nuts. British and American, for the control of the British market, the Pilot stated:—Of course, whichever combatant drives out' the other will try to recoup itself by monopoly prices thenceforth, as the American trust already ilowfti America. That this can be done in Finland it is hard to believe. Connoisseurs do not buy " packet goods" any snore than they set their wine from the local grocer, tin(l they are above petty considerations of price. And the tobacco -growing area is so enormous, and so .many new kinds have made their appearance- of late years, that people who are not connoisseurs will be quito ready to experiment with them when the prices of known brands are artificially raised. So far, tlie retailor stands clear, the v. '.-ale dealers are organising for defence, ami the consumer—-unless he ho also a shareholder—looks o.i rejoicing that two great, monopolies are destroying one another, and especially that the Imperial Company is righting the American trust in its own country and organising guerilla warfare in its rear.