The Sotweed Factor

In Colonial America during the reign of England’s King George II (1720-1767), tobacco had become an extremely valuable cash crop. However, despite the success of colonial tobacco farming and the tax revenue it brought England, George II despised tobacco.

The King called tobacco “sotweed”. In Colonial America a “sot” was a fool or drunkard. Sotweed then, implied that only fools or drunkards smoked tobacco. A merchant or “middleman” was known as a “factor”. Thus, if you were a merchant or middleman buying and selling tobacco, you were a “Sotweed Factor.”