Intoxicants and Luxury Goods

With the expansion of maritime trade and the colonial system, new luxury goods began arriving in Europe from the 16th century onwards. The Kingdom of Sweden attempted, with limited success, to restrict the use of these goods, as imports were seen as a drain on national wealth.

Smoking became widespread across the whole of Finland by the mid-17th century. Domestic cultivation of tobacco began in the 1670s. Finland, however, with its short and relatively cool summers, tends not to produce particularly high-quality tobacco. Local produce was supplanted by imports after the World War II.

Coffee use was first recorded among the socialites of Turku in the 1720s. The Swedish colonial empire managed to secure a near-monopoly on the maritime imports of coffee to Europe, and to this day, Finns rank among the most assiduous coffee-drinkers in the world. Initially, it was a beverage for the nobility, but by the late 19th century, coffee had become popular across all social classes in Finland.

Tea and cocoa also became more widespread during the 19th century. The habit of tea consumption was mainly adopted from Russia, which controlled the area of modern Finland from 1809 to 1917 as an autonomous Grand Duchy. For European powers, that was a time of imperial apogee, and while Finland was not a colonial power per se, Finnish everyday culture was thoroughly transformed by imports and cultural influences from distant lands—no more was Finland a poor hinterland at the edge of Europe, but increasingly integrated into the rapidly globalizing world system.

Caption: E. G. W. Bauer’s tobacco shop operated in Loimaa in the 1910s. The photo shows Bauer’s shop around 1918–1919.
Photo: Veikko Hulkko Collection.