Licensing and temperance in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark / by Edwin A. Pratt.

  • Pratt, Edwin A., 1854-1922.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Licensing and temperance in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark / by Edwin A. Pratt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    33/136 (page 19)
    Bolags) under a new Act coming into force in October, 1907. It must be evident to the reader, from the facts given above, that the control exercised by the Gothenburg Bolag applies to a part only of the ‘ liquor trade.’ It nevertheless represents, as already indicated, much more than the sale of branvin at the thirteen drinking-bars. While the attention of writers on the subject of the Gothen- burg System, as adopted in that city, has been concentrated almost without exception on the drinking-bars and their limitations and restric- tions, practically nothing has been said by them concerning the retail shops also conducted by the Bolag. Yet the annual report of the company shows that, while their bar sales of spirits amounted to 648,766 litres in 1905, their retail sales were 1,198,697 litres, or 549,930 litres more. In visiting Gothenburg, I went to some of the retail shops established by the Bolag, and I must confess that what I there found threw a new light on the subject, and one for which 1 had been in no way prepared. I found that, while a very effective control was certainly being exer- cised over the bar sale of branvin in one set of shops, there was a much larger sale of branvin in bottles proceeding in another set of shops, under conditions which left everyone free to buy as much as he pleased, provided he could raise 1 kr. 35 ore (equal to about Is. 6d.) for each litre (If pints), this being the minimum quantity sold. The business done, too, in these retail shops is almost incredible. In one that I went 3—2