The Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas, S.A. (General Tobacco Company of the Philippines, abbreviated CdF),[1] also known as the Compañía Española de Tabacos de Filipinas,[2] was a Spanish multinational joint-stock company, one of the world's most important enterprises in the late 19th and early 20th century, and the Philippines' first private tobacco company. Founded by the 1st Marquess of Comillas in Barcelona in 1881 and based in Manila, it is also simply known as Tabacos de Filipinas in Spain,[3] and as La Tabacalera in the Philippines.[4]
Although the company today specializes in tobacco trading, over the years the company also ran a shipping line and established factories with the aim of cultivating, trading, manufacturing, and commercializing tobacco from the Philippines.[5] It also expanded its interests beyond tobacco, engaging in the exploitation of sugar and alcohol distribution,