Gin Epidemic - 1720-1750
Gin became an overnight favourite of the poor during the Thirty Years War when English troops fighting in the Low Countries brought it home with them. (The original ‘Dutch Courage’)
At that time, anyone could distil by simply posting a notice in public and waiting ten days.
Vendors roamed the streets pushing
carts filled with cheap gin, and soon the daily volume sold exceeded that of
the more expensive beer and ale.
Shops, throughout London especially, advertised:
"Drunk for one penny, dead drunk for two, clean straw for nothing."
The straw was used to lie on while sleeping off a hangover.
Mother's ruin
Women, in particular, seemed to favour
gin and bought it from pharmacists as a medicinal drink. It was mixed with warm
water to 'soothe the nerves' and it soon became known as Mother's Ruin.
Many of the Industrial Revolution's
poor remained permanently inebriated in their search for relief from the
terrible factory conditions.
However, in 1729, an excise licence of
£20 was introduced and a duty of two shillings per gallon was charged. This
almost suppressed good gin, but increased illegal distilling and the quantity
of bad spirits consumed continued to rise.
In London, this led to a decline in the
population. People were actually drinking themselves to death.
Gin riots
To tackle the problem The Gin Act was
introduced on 29th September 1736. It decreed that a £50 licence was required
to sell gin, making it prohibitively expensive.
This attempt by the government to
outlaw the drink caused considerable social unrest and led to rioting.
On the day before the Act was passed,
mobs took to the streets determined to drown their sorrows in the last legal
gin available.
At the time, approximately 11 million
gallons of gin were produced in London, roughly the equivalent of 14 gallons
for each adult male.
Within six years, only two distillers
took out licences, yet over the same period of time production rose by almost
50%.
The Gin Act, finally recognised as
unenforceable, was repealed in 1742.
