During the past century tobacco production and marketing in Nyasaland/Malawi
has undergone periods of dynamism similar to changes since the early 1990s. This
article highlights three recurrent patterns. First, estate owners have fostered or
constrained peasant/smallholder production dependent on complementarities or
competition with estates. Second, the rapid expansion of peasant/smallholder
production has led to large multiplier effects in tobacco-rich districts. Third, such
expansion has also led to re-regulation of the marketing of peasant/smallholder
tobacco by the (colonial) state. The article concludes by assessing whether recent
changes in the industry such as district markets, contract farming with
smallholders, and the importance of credence factors have historical precedents,
or are new developments in the industry.