In 1717, the Spanish Crown established a monopoly over Cuban tobacco production.
From 1740 to 1760, about 85 percent of the tobacco processed by the royal factory in Seville came from Cuba, and this monopoly produced annual profits that grew from nearly 4 million pesos in the early 1740s to over 5 million by the late 1750s, and exceeded the profit from silver.
[2] Tobacco played a role in the illegal trade that flourished in remote parts of the Spanish Empire in the eighteenth century, undermining Spanish colonialism.
The Pinar del Río province, located at the western end of the island, is particularly important for tobacco cultivation and contains the Vuelta Abajo and Semi Vuelta regions.
Cuban cigars are manufactured in Cuba using tobacco grown within the country.