The era of tobacco in Stockholm – a piece of smelly industrial history

Today, we may primarily associate tobacco with smoking or snus – but in 18th- and 19th-century Stockholm, tobacco was primarily an occupation. A source of income. A craft. And in some neighborhoods, even – a scent that lay like a sweet, suffocating fog over the roofs.

As early as the 17th century, tobacco cultivation began to occur on a small scale in Sweden. The Crown encouraged cultivation because it wanted to reduce imports of foreign goods. Around the 1720s, it really took off, and in Stockholm, tobacco plants were planted in gardens and manor houses – from Södermalm to Kungsholmen.

Tobacco was sensitive. It required warmth, nourishment, protection from frost – and a lot of labor. But in a growing capital with poverty and child laborers, there were plenty of hands.

Many women. Many children. It was one of the few factory industries where women were in clear majority. The working environment was tough – tobacco powder in eyes and airways, constant standing work, poor lighting. But it was also a way to get some money for the household. A mother and her daughter could work side by side, sometimes in secret factories – especially if they rolled cigars at home.

Tobacco cultivation in Sweden decreased after the turn of the century in 1900. It became cheaper to import. But even into the 1930s you could see tobacco fields in Skarpnäck and Hägersten.

Last sign of life? During the emergency preparedness period in the 1940s, new attempts were made to grow Swedish tobacco – but it never became more than an emergency alternative.

Walking along the streets of Södermalm, you may sometimes see a name: “Tobaksspinnargatan” or an old gate with an inscription. Perhaps you sense a faint scent of something bitter and spicy – or maybe it's just the city's history whispering about its past.