Rolling papers may look like a simple product to you: a simple sheet of thin paper, a small strip of gum, everything packaged in a neat packaging. But the history behind that small sheet is surprisingly complex and fascinating.
To understand the history of rolling papers, it is necessary to go much further back than the first cigarette-paper manufacturers of the 19th century. The story begins with the development of papermaking itself: the invention of paper in Asia, its transmission across the Muslim world, its transformation in Europe, and eventually the industrialization of paper production who finally led to what we know now as rolling papers.
The modern rolling paper is therefore the result of several centuries of international technological and cultural evolution.
1. Before Rolling Papers: How Paper Came to Europe
From China to the Islamic world
Paper was invented in China centuries before it became established in Europe. Over time, papermaking knowledge travelled westward along the trade routes connecting Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East, known as the Silk Road.
One of the most frequently repeated stories in the history of papermaking links this transmission to the Battle of Talas in 751 AD, where Tang Chinese forces confronted the Abbasid Caliphate and its allies in Central Asia.
According to a later tradition, Chinese prisoners captured after the battle revealed papermaking techniques to their Muslim captors, helping the technology spread into the Islamic world.
The story is fascinating, but historians have questioned whether Talas was actually the moment when papermaking reached the Muslim world. Evidence shows that paper was already present in parts of Central Asia before 751. The battle is therefore better understood as part of a much larger process of technological exchange rather than as a single moment when China "gave" paper to the West.
What is certain is that Muslim papermakers played an enormous role in developing and spreading the technology westward.
The Muslim world develops papermaking
Papermaking became established in important centres such as Baghdad, Damascus and Samarkand. From there, the technology gradually moved across North Africa and into Islamic Spain.
The materials and techniques also evolved during these centuries.
Early European paper was largely produced from linen and hemp rags, which were soaked, beaten and reduced to fibres before being suspended in water and formed into sheets.
Hemp was particularly valuable because its long fibres could produce strong paper. Linen and other textile fibres were similarly important sources of raw material.
2. The European Papermaking Revolution
From hand production to water-powered mills
The traditional method of making paper was relatively simple in principle but labour-intensive. A mould covered with a fine screen was dipped into a vat containing water and suspended fibres. The papermaker lifted the mould, allowing the water to drain while a thin layer of fibres remained on the screen. The wet sheet was then removed from the fine screen, stacked on top of one another, pressed to extract excess water, and finally dried.
Every sheet was essentially made individually.
That meant production capacity was limited by the number of workers, moulds and drying areas available. European papermakers gradually improved this process by developing better ways of preparing fibres and powering the machinery used to process them.
One important European development was the use of mechanical power to prepare fibres.
Instead of manually beating rags into pulp, water-powered mills could operate multiple hammers simultaneously. This increased productivity while producing a more refined and consistent fibre suspension.
Improvements to hammer mills and fibre preparation helped lower production costs and improve paper quality. The availability of raw materials also mattered.The expansion of linen and hemp cultivation created a larger supply of textile fibres.
This combination, better machinery and more abundant fibres, was fundamental to the development of European papermaking.
3. Tobacco Arrives in Europe
As paper manufacturing evolved in Europe, another major event was taking place that would also play an important role in the future of rolling paper creation.
Tobacco arrived in Europe following the voyages to the Americas in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The plant initially attracted attention for its perceived medicinal properties before becoming a recreational product.
In France, the story is closely associated with Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal. Around 1560–1561, Nicot introduced tobacco to the French court, where it was presented to Catherine de Médicis as a treatment for headaches. Tobacco subsequently became known in France as "herbe à la Reine" or "herbe à Nicot."
Fun fact: The term “nicotine” comes directly from the name of this ambassador
Smoking, however, was only one of several ways tobacco was consumed. Tobacco could be smoked in pipes, used as snuff or even chewed. During the 16th and 17th centuries, smoking dried tobacco with pipes gradually spread throughout European society.
From Pipes to Rolled Tobacco
For centuries, the pipe remained one of the principal methods of smoking tobacco in Europe.
But rolling tobacco offered several advantages.
It required less equipment, was portable and allowed the smoker to control the quantity of tobacco used. Before dedicated cigarette papers existed, smokers could use whatever suitable paper was available.
Spanish origins of rolling papers:
Historical accounts and later industry traditions describe tobacco being rolled using scraps of newspaper. In Spain, while tobacco consumption was largely limited to the bourgeoisie, as it was a luxury item, the poor would collect cigar and cigarillos stubs thrown on the ground by the rich and roll them up in newspaper, which was readily available.
French origins of rolling papers:
Some traditions even associate early French soldiers with the use of paper from musket cartridges during the Crimean War (1853–1856). According to legend, during the Battle of Sevastopol, a Zouave had his pipe shattered by a stray bullet. He was the first to come up with the idea of rolling his tobacco using the paper from his powder bag, thus inventing the first rolling paper!
The important point is that rolling tobacco predates the actual birth of modern rolling-paper as we know it. The first smokers did not have access to thin papers specifically designed and made for rolling tobacco.
The dedicated rolling paper emerged when papermakers began adapting their manufacturing processes to create a material specifically suited to rolling and burning tobacco.
And this is where Spain and France become particularly important.
In the next part of this series, we will explore the rise of rolling paper in Spain and France, the disputed origins of the first rolling papers, and the emergence of the first manufacturers and iconic brands that would shape the industry for generations.