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Tobacco Merchant: The Story of Universal Leaf Tobacco Company. By MAURICE DuKE and DANIEL P. JORDAN. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1995. xii, 212 pp. $25.00.
UNIVERSAL LEAF TOBACCO COMPANY (ULT), the largest independent leaf tobacco dealer in the world, purchases, processes, stores, and sells tobacco around the globe. Maurice Duke and Daniel P. Jordan's book narrates the history of this little-known Richmond company that since its founding in 1918 has played a vital role in the modern tobacco industry. In the absence of extensive company records, the authors relied primarily on some two hundred interviews with officers and employees. These sources are acknowledged in the text without footnotes. Four appendices provide a brief history of tobacco consumption, ULT annual earnings from 1918 to 1993, an explanation of tobacco grades, and a list of company officers.
Like the tobacco industry, ULT's operations are decentralized, and the company's values reflect Virginia-North Carolina tobacco belt culture. ULT was created by a merger of six experienced leaf tobacco...