The Gin Craze In 18th Century England

As Winston Churchill once said, gin… ‘saved more Englishman's lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire’ (LeBor). However, this is a common misconception in the history of gin: in 18th Century England, a Gin Craze took over. The Gin Craze was a brief stint in English history when the poor drank excessive amounts of gin (“18th Century Gin Craze”). This period defined the time when the government exploited the poor by domesticating gin production. In doing so, gin became affordable to everyone, and the government profited from the poor’s insatiable need for gin in order to escape the horrific conditions the government had subjected them to in the first place. As a result, “[Thousands of gin shops, gin cellars, and gin mills, often in residences or in their back rooms and most often in East London, sprang up to date the soaring demand for gin.
A New York Times reviewer of two books on the gin craze wrote that by the early 1700s London had 7,044 “licensed retailers” in a city of 600,000, or one gin shop for every 80 Londoners]” (Flemmings). Moreover, White finds that “the drink was available in street markets, grocers, chandlers, barbers, and brothels. Of 2,000 houses in one notorious district, more than 600 were involved in the retail of gin or in its production. By the 1740’s gin consumption in Britain had reached an average of over six gallons per person every year.” This consumption rapidly became very sinister. “By 1730, Londoners [were turning into] into degenerate alcoholics. Historical accounts of violence, widespread addiction, and social devastation call to mind the early 80s crack epidemic”