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158:. This Act lowered the annual licence fees, but encouraged "respectable" gin selling by requiring licensees to trade from premises rented for at least £10 a year. Historians suggest that gin consumption was reduced not as a result of legislation but because of the rising cost of grain. Landowners could afford to abandon the production of gin, and this fact, coupled with population growth and a series of poor harvests, resulted in lower wages and increased
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The trade became illegal, consumption dipped but then continued to rise and the law was effectively repealed in 1743 following mass law-breaking and violence (particularly towards informers who were paid £5 to reveal the whereabouts of illegal gin shops). The illegally distilled gin which was produced following the 1736 Act was less reliable and more likely to result in poisoning.
78:, was encouraged by the government. This encouragement was shown in the reduced taxes on the distillation of spirits. Additionally, no licenses were needed to make spirits, so distillers of spirits could have smaller, simpler workshops than brewers, who were required to serve food and provide shelter for patrons.
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taxed retail sales at a rate of 20 shillings a gallon on spirits and required licensees to take out a £50 annual licence to sell gin, a fee equivalent to about £10,000 today. The aim was to effectively prohibit the trade by making it economically unfeasible. Only two licences were ever taken out.
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It is with the deepest concern your committee observe the strong
Inclination of the inferior Sort of People to these destructive Liquors, and how surprisingly this Infection has spread within these few Years ... it is scarce possible for Persons in low Life to go anywhere or to be anywhere, without
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at a time of both political and religious conflict between
Britain and France. Between 1689 and 1697, the Government passed a range of legislation aimed at restricting brandy imports and encouraging gin production. Most importantly, the monopoly of the London Guild of Distillers was broken in 1690,
418:
Considerations on the
Increase of Crime and the Degree of its Extent, the Principal Causes of such Increase, and the Most Likely Means for Prevention or Mitigation of this Public Calamity. Addressed to the Magistracy of the County of Surrey in the Form of a Report. As originally drawn by Randle
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consumption was considerable at all levels of society, gin caused the greatest public concern. Although it is commonly thought gin or
Jenever was the particular drink that became popular, at that time the word "gin" was also used as a general term for drinks distilled from grain.
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commented: "the
Distillers have found out a way to hit the palate of the Poor, by their new fashion'd compound Waters called Geneva, so that the common People seem not to value the French-brandy as usual, and even not to desire it".
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Economic protectionism was a major factor in beginning the Gin Craze; as the price of food dropped and income grew, consumers suddenly had the opportunity to spend excess funds on spirits. By 1721, however,
137:(who had originally campaigned for the liberalisation of distilling, but later complained that drunken mothers were threatening to produce a "fine spindle-shanked generation" of children), and – briefly –
162:. The Gin Craze had mostly ended by 1757. The government tried to ensure this by temporarily banning the manufacture of spirits from domestic grain. There was a resurgence of gin consumption during the
170:" appearing. In 1840, the amount of gin consumed in London (but by that time with a population in excess of one million) finally matched that from when prohibition ended in 1743.
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were already decrying gin as "the principal cause of all the vice & debauchery committed among the inferior sort of people". In 1736, the
Middlesex Magistrates complained:
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Parliament passed five major Acts, in 1729, 1736, 1743, 1747 and 1751, designed to control the consumption of gin. Though many similar drinks were available and
121:(10 litres) of gin per person per year. As consumption levels increased, an organised campaign for more effective legislation began to emerge, led by the
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thereby opening up the market in gin distillation. The production and consumption of
English gin, which was then popular among politicians and even
129:(whose 1751 "Enquiry into the Late Increase in Robbers" blamed gin consumption for both increased crime and increased ill health among children),
125:, Thomas Wilson, who, in 1736, had complained that gin produced a "drunken ungovernable set of people". Prominent anti-gin campaigners included
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being drawn in to taste, and, by
Degrees, to like and approve of this pernicious Liquor.
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191:(or Dutch gin) was used by English soldiers for its calming effects before battle.
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The
British government tried a number of times to restrict the flow of gin. The
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An
Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers and Related Writings,
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Elise Skinner, "The Gin Craze: Drink, Crime & Women in 18th Century London"
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Gin: The Much-Lamented Death of Madam Geneva: The Eighteenth-Century Gin Craze
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was a period in the first half of the 18th century when the consumption of
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The Much-Lamented Death of Madam Geneva: The Eighteenth-Century Gin Craze
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A Brief Case of the Distillers and of the Distilling Trade in England
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Jackson, Esq, A Magistrate of that county. Published: London, 1828.
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The Complete English Tradesman, Vol. 2, Page 91 Daniel Defoe, 1727
216:"Mother Gin and the Bad Examples: Figuring a Drug Crisis, 1736–51"
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is a well known image of the gin craze, and is often paired with "
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32:, 1751; it depicts what was by then considered a "drug crisis".
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Gin was popularised in England following the accession of
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increased rapidly in Great Britain, especially in London.
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432:, a comparison of the gin craze and the dawn of the
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ed. Malvin R. Zirker (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988)
309:The Pamphleteer, Volume 29 By Abraham John Valpy
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69:in 1688. Gin provided an alternative to French
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406:Craze: Gin and Debauchery in the Age of Reason
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154:The Gin Craze began to diminish after the
268:. The University of North Carolina Press.
187:– One version of the history states that
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297:The Much-Lamented Death of Madam Geneva
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399:London Life in the Eighteenth Century
401:(1925; Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992)
322:Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol
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117:By 1743, England was drinking 2.2
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436:, Clay Shirky website, April 2008
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324:. New York: Gotham. p. 171.
195:Prohibition in the United Kingdom
16:Historical event in Great Britain
349:. London: Review. p. 228.
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470:Alcohol in the United Kingdom
465:18th century in Great Britain
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408:(London: Random House, 2002)
279:Kate Chisholm (2002-06-09).
61:Increased consumption of gin
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455:History of alcoholic drinks
264:Phillips, Roderick (2014).
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220:Eighteenth-Century Fiction
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380:(London: T. Warner, 1726)
214:Allred, Nicholas (2021).
99:Gin Acts of 1736 and 1751
475:British distilled drinks
345:Dillon, Patrick (2002).
281:"A tonic for the nation"
123:Bishop of Sodor and Man
387:(London: Review, 2002)
141:. Hogarth's engraving
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320:Gately, Iain (2008).
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232:10.3138/ecf.33.3.369
397:M. Dorothy George,
460:Alcohol and health
299:by Patrick Dillon.
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414:, Cultural Shifts
390:Fielding, Henry,
331:978-1-592-40464-3
266:Alcohol A History
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168:Gin palaces
160:food prices
149:Beer Street
87:magistrates
444:Categories
290:2010-08-30
201:References
180:Dipsomania
76:Queen Anne
285:Telegraph
240:0840-6286
84:Middlesex
38:Gin Craze
174:See also
144:Gin Lane
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368:Sources
189:jenever
119:gallons
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