China's Neoteric Cigarette Market Research (1927-1937),

Confronting with the economic crisis of the1930s, both the producers and the consumers in modern Chinese cigarettes market took various strategies to respond. It is their prompt adjustments according to the principles of market economy that keep up the high production and consumption during a trouble time.For the cigarette suppliers, the economic crisis not only brought challenges, but also created opportunities. Firstly, the sales of the British American Company in China declined continually from1930to1934. To save the cost, BAT was further localized in all stages of its production-supply-marketing chain. Secondly, the preference to cheaper cigarettes provided the medium and small Chinese tobacco companies an opportunity to gain a bigger market share. But restricted by the consolidated tax system being imposed by the Kuomintang government, the development of Chinese cigarette companies were not only suppressed by BAT, but also challenged by the innumerable cigarette hand rollers. Thirdly, under the heavy burden of cigarette tax, the machine-made cigarettes cannot meet the demands for cheap cigarettes. The cigarette hand rollers enjoying the duty-free policy boomed their business by fulfilling the market vacuum.During the economic crisis, the subsistent consumption satisfying nicotine addiction mattered as much as the identity building conspicuous consumption. Although a consensus on "smoking is harmful to health" was reached by the government, social elite, and ordinary citizens, the ban of cigarette was mostly limited to the adolescence group, for the eradication of cigarettes would lead to absolute revenue loss and terrible economic chaos. Under the economic stress, the common cigarette consumers found their own ways to maintain daily smoking habit. Firstly, as discussed above, they turned to cheaper cigarettes or alternatives. That’s why China-made cigarettes and hand-rolled cigarettes prevailed in Chinese market. Secondly, people tried to cut off such "useless consumption" by launching "Anti-cigarette" campaigns, especially in rural areas of Zhejiang Province during the middle1930s. Last but not least, the allocation method of economic resources was changed. To sustain their own consumption, male smokers stigmatized the female consumption on cigarettes in the name of health and morality.