Or, The London Pissed:
The story of the Gin Craze properly begins with the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which brought William III of Orange to the British throne. He brought with him a hatred of all things French -- he immediately banned the import of Gallic spirits, such as brandy -- and a warring political agenda that required funding. Meanwhile, William’s wealthy landowner friends in Parliament had surplus grain, not to mention an eye for the profit it could make them....
This led to a series of political machinations that would set the stage for gin’s stranglehold on the underprivileged. First, the Distilling Act of 1690 dissolved the production monopoly that had been held by the Worshipful Company of Distillers, thus allowing anyone to set up a still simply by posting a public notice and produce spirits without a license.
Then, in 1694, beer -- the “national beverage” -- was subjected to a heavy tax, making gin cheaper to drink. In 1720, one of Parliament’s annual Mutiny Acts stated that those who distilled spirits in their homes didn’t have to house soldiers, since soldiers and alcohol often did not create the best of situations. Soon, “distillers” of the home-grown sort abounded. Over time, the government would come to rely heavily on excises on distilled spirits for revenue.
The author puts this down to the simultaneous growth of an early 'consumer society'. More likely it was a down to the fact that people paid a bare subsistence to work until they collapsed substituted gin for food, to the point where this was perceived as a threat to economic productivity and national cohesion, at which juncture the forces of religion, law and morality intervened to deprive people of their gin without raising their wages. Hogarth was on to this with Beer Street.
Incidentally, I seem to recall that the cheapo pseudo brand "My Mum's" which was widespread in the north of England not so many years ago actually produced a "My Mum's Gin", though I may have been on tha vodka at the time so I can't swear to it.
Aldi is currently selling a "Cromwell" gin, so I no longer have to worry about presents for my Irish friends.
Posted by: Stephen | September 29, 2012 at 04:43 PM
Victoria Wines used to do a 'Victory Gin', which led top scenes in which people behind the counter were plainly wondering why I was talking about some bloke named Orwell.
Posted by: jamie | September 29, 2012 at 06:08 PM
When the website was broken 10 hours ago (I lost all sorts of clever), I was trying to say that many of central Manchester's cheapest offies and at least one pub in Ancoats sold Victory Gin. I got into the same situation as Jamie a few times, until my gf banned me from ever raising the topic.
Posted by: john b | September 29, 2012 at 07:02 PM
ENGLISH GIN IRISH BLOOD THIS I'M MADE OF
THERE IS NO GIN ON EARTH I'M AFRAID OF.
Cromwell gin fits ideally.
Posted by: john b | September 29, 2012 at 07:03 PM
Cheers Moz.
Posted by: Igor Belanov | September 29, 2012 at 07:42 PM
Bernard Mandeville has a fun discussion of gin in vol. 1, Remark G of The Fable of the Bees, which I stuck on the Virtual Stoa many years ago:
http://virtualstoa.net/2003/02/05/88580849/
Posted by: Chris Brooke | September 30, 2012 at 08:00 PM