Public Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages
Judging from the sheer volume of laws and ordinances regulating the sale and consumption of beer, ale, wine, and other spirits, this was an area of perennial concern to lawmakers everywhere. In England, laws regulating public drinking were often promulgated with a view to prevent debt and crime. Many of these were difficult to enforce because alcoholic beverages were an integral part of everyday life, even in prisons. Imported wines and spirits seem to have provided a significant source of revenue for the government in the form of tariffs. These tariffs also protected local and national production of alcohol from foreign competition. Shown here are just a few of the many laws enacted with both issues in mind.
Indenture of bargain and sale. January 15, 1527/8, 19 Henry VIII.
This indenture made the xvth daye of Januarye yn the xxth year of the Reyne of Kyng Henrye the VIIIth [1528] by William Heyward of Danbury in the count' of Essex...[selling] to John Springfild...the blewe boar [a tavern in the town of Chelmsford]...
A typical tavern of its time, the Blue Boar is interesting to us today for being unexceptional. It had a garden where patrons could, presumably, sit outside to drink in warm weather. This indenture also mentions that the tavern possessed two brewing vats and a stove in the kitchen. The tavern's neighbors were a priest on one side and an almshouse on the other. This juxtaposition was probably not unusual in small towns and in a period when consumption of beer and ale was universal.
Statuta Brixie. [Brescia : Angelus Britannicus, 1508]
In this collection of Brescian statutes there are several regulations governing the operation of taverns. Article 236 (right-hand page) forbids the sale of wine in taverns at night after the ringing of the third night bell and before the first bell in the morning, under penalty of forty soldi.
Acts and laws, passed by the General Court of his majesty's province of New-Hampshire in New-England. Boston : B. Green, 1716.
An act for the inspection, and suppressing of disorders in licensed houses.
This act of 1715 sets down regulations for tavern and inn-keepers, beginning with their responsibility to provide "suitable provisions and lodging, for the refreshment and entertainment of strangers and travellers...." It prohibits customers from "drinking or tipping after ten o'clock at night... or above the space of two hours." And tavern-keepers were not to "suffer any person to drink to drunkenness or excess." These regulations were enforced by "tything-men" who inspected inns and taverns and reported "all idle and disorderly persons, prophane swearers or cursers, sabbath-breakers, and the like-offenders" to local justice of the peace.
The statutes at large. v.7. Cambridge
[England] : Joseph Bentham for Charles Bathurst, 1763.
4 James I, c.5
An act for repressing the odious and loathsome sin of drunkeness.
Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century,
numerous English statutes were enacted with the aim of reducing
drunkeness, which seems to have been increasingly associated
with many of society's ills. Legislation of this type was often
blatantly aimed at the lower classes, and in 1736 the wording
of a similar act is said to have provoked riots.
The preface to this particular statute sums up the prevailing
morality:
Whereas the loathsome sin of drunkeness is of late grown into common use within this realm, being the root and foundation of many other enormous sins, as bloodshed, stabbing, murder, swearing, fornication, adultery, and such like, to the great dishonour of God, and of our nation, the overthrow of many good arts and manual trades, the disabling of divers workmen, and the general impoverishing of many good subjects, abusively wasting the good creatures of God.
By this act, drunkeness and lingering too long in an
alehouse were punishable by fines. If the offender was unable
or refused to pay the fine, his goods could be confiscated or
he could be put in stocks for several hours. Constables who
failed to enforce this law were also fined.
Ordonnances de Louis XIV ... Concernant la
jurisdiction des prevost des marchands & eschevins de la
ville de Paris. Paris : Frederic Leonard, 1685.
Chapter eight of this compilation, "Concerning the sale of
wines and cider," contains twenty-seven articles on various
aspects of the wholesale and retail trade. Article 17, shown
here, states that tavern-keepers, if they anticipate a slow
market, cannot close their wine-cellars until they have sold
their entire stock. This law attempts to prevent tavern-keepers
from creating a false scarcity, which would in turn have
increased the price of wine. The two articles that follow
forbid the mixing of wines by wholesale and retail
merchants.
Arrest du conseil d'estat du roy, du 17 avril 1717. Paris : la veuve Saugrain, [1717].
This decision of the Council of State clarifies an article of the 1680 law establishing wholesale and import tariffs. The present ruling orders that duties on wine, cider and perry (pear cider) coming from regions exempt from wholesale and import tax be paid upon these goods when they enter the region of Paris.
Arrest de la cour de Parlement. Paris : P.G. Simon & N.H. Nyon, 1783.
This arrêt confirms a decision of the Chambre de Police of the Châtelet (responsible for maintaining public order in Paris) which had condemned a wine merchant, one Monsieur Desavelle. He had been fined eight times before for selling wine after hours and for having broken the regulations governing keepers of lodging houses. Desavelle had evidently appealed to the Cour de Parlement, which upheld the decision of the Chambre de Police. The text of the arrêt, which lists Desavelle's previous abuses and fines, condemns him to pay a fine of 12 livres.
Tarif des droits d'entrées établis à Versailles. [Paris] : G. Lamesle, 1745.
This list of tariffs to go into effect in October 1745, covers various types of wine, champagne, cider, perry and beer in quantities ranging from hogsheads (muids) to pint bottles. While three quarters of this list pertains to alcoholic beverages, tariffs on oats, hay, straw, wood, and livestock are also included.
A collection of all the statutes now in force relating to excise and the duties upon salt, malt & leather. London : Charles Bill, 1697.
These pages show some of the excise taxes on alcohol and other beverages in effect in England in the late seventeenth century. This volume also includes the texts of the acts relating to excise tax on these beverages.