Seville became the centre of the tobacco trade in the 17th century after the Spaniards found the
indigenous Americans smoking the plant. In 1614 King Phillip III decreed that all tobacco grown in the Spanish new world would be shipped to Seville.

In 1758 the worlds biggest tobacco factory, "The Royal Factory of Seville" was built and was
operational until the 1950's when it became home to the city's university. At its peak more than 3,000 cigarreras (women with their own income and status) would sit in a room hand-rolling cigarettes. The cigarreras were not noted for their chastity ;-)

In 1845 Prosper Merimee published his novel "Carmen" which was subsequently adapted by Bizet in 1875 into Opera when it became famous.

Take a look at the YouTube video below:



The book is freely available for people with book readers. The link provided below is for those with kindle readers:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Carmen-Prosper-M%C3%A9rim%C3%A9e-ebook/dp/B0084A6P20/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1444596295&sr=1-1&keywords=carmen