9781422282434

14 ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO

HAMMURABI

ALCOHOL AND PROHIBITION While many (although not all) cultures have embraced alcohol for medical, religious, and social uses, there has also been a longstanding awareness of the risks. This tension can be seen, for example, in the teachings of the Catholic Church around the 17th century: on the one hand, alcohol was considered a gift from God and was to be enjoyed; on the other hand, “drunkenness” was viewed as sinful. Around this time, distilled liquors became increasingly popular. For example, the colonial American economy became increasingly dependent on rum sales (another key product was tobacco; see chapter four). Back in England, laws were passed to encourage domestic gin production. In 1730, about 10 million gallons of gin were made in London alone. This “gin craze,” as it came to be called, was blamed for increasing social problems, including crime, child neglect, and prostitution. A nobleman named Lord John Hervey observed that “the whole town of London swarmed with drunken people from morning to night.” And so, the same British government that had deliberately encouraged gin production now found itself condemning it. The Gin Act of 1736 placed high taxes on the liquor, The Code of Hammurabi, which dates back to about 1754 BCE, is the first-known set of laws. King Hammurabi is probably most famous for giving us the concept of “an eye for an eye.” Less famously, among its hundreds of different laws, the Code has rules related to alcohol. For example, it has a provision about prices for wine, and about paying for wine with money versus paying with grain. The Code also states that if a “sister of god,” (a nun, in modern language) either opens or even enters a tavern, she can be put to death by fire.

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