Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

free trade in liquor; a third pins its faith upon a transference of the licensing authority from the magistrates to a board of ratepayers; while a fourth is willing to trust to the magistrates, if only some real power over the number of licenses can be contrived for them. The first and natural objection to all the theories of Licensing Reform at present before the public is the mere fact that they are theoretic; that it is impossible to predict with certainty how they would work in practice. It is for this reason, and because the examination of a system that has not only been tried, but is in actual operation in a country in many respects resembling our own, cannot but be of service in discussing the alteration of our system, that we propose in this paper to give some account of the way in which the liquor question has been dealt with in Sweden.

The "intoxicating liquors" law of Sweden is contained in an Act dated the 21st of May, 1869, and entitled "An Act for Regulating the Sale of Bränvin and other Distilled Spirits." In England any Act bearing such a title would be regarded, and rightly, as dealing only with one branch of the liquor question. Indeed, when we speak of the trade in intoxicating liquors, we are probably thinking more of beer than of gin.

The

"deleterious ingredients "1 the admixture of which with any intoxicating liquor Mr. Bruce's Bill proposed to make penal, are mostly, if not entirely, used in the adulteration of beer and porter. But in Sweden, owing to the different drinking habits of that country, liquor legislation is concerned solely with the manufacture and sale of spirits. mass of the people take almost all the alcohol they imbibe in the shape of bränvin, a spirit obtained from grain or (less commonly) potatoes, and so bearing a strong family likeness to English whiskey. Beer and porter are compara

The

[blocks in formation]

tively so little drink that it has not been found necessary to class them for legislative purposes among intoxicating liquors, and any body may sell them anywhere without license or other restriction. It will be understood, then, that the provisions of the general Swedish liquor law are in terms confined to the trade in bränvin, but they are none the less applicable to any other species of alcoholic drinks.

The sale of spirits by wholesale only -that is to say, in quantities of not less than fifteen cans1-stands on very much the same footing as with us. It is to the retail trade that the Act already mentioned is directed, and with it alone we are now concerned. The Act begins by distinguishing two kinds or methods of retailing, viz. (1) retail for consumption off the premises (minuthandel), the business of the retail dealer, which is defined as the sale of quantities of half a can (about a quart) and upwards; and (2) retail for consumption on the premises, or "serving out" (utskänkning), which is carried on by publicans. The exercise of either of these trades requires the statutory license, which is granted in the following way. following way. First, as regards the "old burghers." Some years ago, before the date of the Act of 1869, a person who desired to carry on any business in a Swedish borough usually made application beforehand to be permitted to carry it on "as a burgher." Any one who had once obtained permission to set up as (say) a retail spirit dealer, or publican, with burgher rights, became entitled to carry on his calling for life, provided he paid his rates and taxes, and kept out of the criminal courts. The Act of 1869 abolished this privilege for the future, but saved vested interests, so that all persons who were burgher spirit retailers, or publicans, at the date of the Act, have a personal right to retain their licenses so long as they conduct their houses properly, and pay the statutory license duties. This being so, the magistrates of every borough and country district are required annually, in April,

66

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

after conference with, the municipality, or district council (as the case may be), to send to the Governor of their Province a report, specifying the number of "old burgher" and ordinary licenses current in their district, and expressing their views as to the grant of additional licenses. To these reports the Governor replies, either allowing or disallowing the whole or any part of a proposed grant, as he thinks fit; the only limitation of his discretion being that he may not add to the number of new licenses recommended by any magistracy. The next step is the allotment of the licenses which, by forfeiture, lapse, or the Governor's sanction, are at the magistrates' disposal. Accordingly, some time in July the licenses are offered, either in a lump or separately, for sale by public auction, and are knocked down to the person or persons who offer to pay the retailers' duty on the largest number of cans, provided that the magistrates are also satisfied of the applicant's eligibility. This method of bidding requires, perhaps, a few words of explanation. What the bidders do is this: they undertake in advance, that, whatever quantity of spirits they may actually sell in any year during the currency of their license-a period in no case to exceed three years-they will at any rate pay the amount of the statutory duty upon such and such a number of gallons, not being less than a minimum fixed by the Act. From what has been already said, it will be seen that there is nothing to prevent any single bidder from buying up all the licenses offered at any auction. More than this, the concentration of the retail spirit trade of a locality under one management is distinctly encouraged; for if in any case an association or company tenders, before the auction, for a monopoly of the licenses, and the magistracy and municipal or district council report the plan with approval to the Governor, he has

[ocr errors][merged small]

power to hand over all the licenses to the associated applicants without any auction at all. But what becomes of the duties payable by licensees? Twofifths of the aggregate amount collected are paid into the treasury of the province, and devoted to provincial purposes generally; the remaining threefifths go, in boroughs, to swell the municipal revenue, and in country districts are distributed among the parishes, proportionately to population, in aid of their local expenditure. With respect to hours of closing, it is laid down as a general rule that no retailing is to go on later than 10 P.M.; but the local authorities are empowered to fix either an earlier or a later hour at their discretion. On Sundays, not only must all public-houses be closed during the hours of divine service, but the sale of any spirit at all, except to travellers taking meals, is absolutely prohibited in country inns, and may be restricted to any degree or prohibited in towns, if the municipality and the Governor agree upon such a step.

Our space does not admit of any detailed account of many instructive clauses of this Act, in which such subjects as the transfer and forfeiture of licenses, adulteration, and penalties are treated of at length. We cannot, however, resist the temptation of commending a few of its miscellaneous provisions to the applause of lovers of paternal government. Whenever a public auction, fair, market, or militia muster is being held in any country district, no retailing of spirits may go on within threequarters of a mile; and on other occasions which bring people together, district sessions for instance, bränvin may only be served at meal-times, and to persons bona fide taking meals. Again, spirits may not be served to a customer who is apparently intoxicated (öfverlastad, "overloaded," is the expressive word in the Act), nor to a minor; and the Act, in its tender solicitude for the helpless tippler, goes on to provide that a person who is "overloaded" is not to be turned out of the house where he has overloaded himself, nor left adrift

without any one to take care of him. The weak are further protected by a clause enacting that nobody shall be legally compellable to pay for strong drink served on credit; and, as if for fear of violating the feelings of reverence which ought to prevail in wellregulated families, children are expressly forbidden to inform against their parents, and servants against their masters, for offences of whatever nature against the enactments of the statute.

Such, then, is in brief the system of licensing which the Swedish Legislature has devised for Sweden generally. The law containing the system is, however, of such recent date that, if it stood alone, its practical value could hardly yet be estimated. Fortunately, it does not stand alone. In this matter, as in not a few others, the hardworking, energetic inhabitants of a single town. set an example to the rest of the country, and paved the way for licensing reform, by setting up an entirely novel system for themselves, and demonstrating its feasibility by success.

In the speech with which Mr. Bruce introduced his Licensing Bill last April, he spoke of the system to which we are alluding, the system in operation at Gothenburg, as "furnishing an instructive example." Let us see what that system is, and what it has done, and then, making allowance for differences of area, population, and habits, ask ourselves whether we might not with advantage learn some lessons from it.

Nearly seven years ago, in the spring of 1865, the municipal council of Gothenburg-which, as every Englishman knows, is the second town of Sweden both in population and commercial importance-appointed a committee to investigate the causes of the intolerable weight of pauperism then pressing upon the inhabitants of that locality. The committee were not long in discovering that drink was among the commonest and most potent of such causes. They found that the poorer classes of their fellow-townsmen were being preyed upon and demoralized by an inordinate number of liquor

sellers, whose self-interest led them tostimulate in every way the consumption of strong drink, while at the same time, by combination and trickery, they contrived to cheat the town of a considerable portion of the duty which ought by law to have come to it from their sales. A great deal of drink, too, was sold on credit, with the natural result that many an artisan, after settling his week's score at the pothouse, had not a farthing of his wages left to take home; and, still worse, many went so far as to pawn clothes and furniture with the publican, and starved wives and children to satisfy their craving for alcohol. And a miserable article they were getting for their money. The liquor shops were for the most part dark, dirty, unwholesome dens, ill-ventilated and comfortless, where adulterated whiskey, if not finkel itself (the raw, unrectified spirit), was served out half contemptuously by the publican to his debased customers. It appeared clear to the committee of investigation, that nothing short of a radical change of system could be hoped to cure such social sores as these. Starting with the axiom that the consumption of intoxicating liquors in the town must somehow be reduced, they embodied the results of their experience in the following four principles :

I. Spirits to be retailed without any profit whatever to the retailer, who can thus have no temptation to stimulate their consumption.

II. The sale of spirits on credit, or on the security of pledges, to be stringently prohibited.

III. All houses in which the liquor trade is carried on to be well lighted, roomy, airy, and clean.

IV. Good victuals, at moderate prices, to be always procurable in drinking houses by anybody demanding them.

It

It was not in the nature of things that any private individual, trader or non-trader, should be found ready to carry out such a programme as this. was tolerably obvious that if the scheme was to be "put through" at all, a number of the leading members of the

community must loosen their pursestrings and put their shoulders to the wheel together. And this, thanks to the active public spirit that has for years prevailed at Gothenburg, was done promptly and effectively. Upon the requisition of an influential list of the townsmen, headed by several of the leading mercantile firms, the Government granted a charter of incorporation to a company formed with the express object of working out a thorough reform of the local liquor trade, in accordance with the above principles. By the terms of this charter, the maximum nominal capital of the company (which is of the class that we call "limited by guarantee") is fixed at 200,000 rixdollars, or rather more than 11,000. Each shareholder is declared strictly liable up to the amount of his guarantee, but it is distinctly and emphatically laid down that they are not to have any claim to the profits of the company's business, all of which are otherwise appropriated, as will appear further on.

1

Well, as soon as the Gothenburg Retailing Company had got its charter, it applied for, and obtained, all the licenses (forty in number) then at the disposal of the borough magistrates. The entire number of licenses authorized for the town was sixty-one, but a considerable portion of these being in the hands of "old burghers," whose vested interests had to be respected, the licensing magistrates were unable, with all the good will in the world, to throw the whole trade into the company's hands at once. And it was probably to the ultimate advantage of the company to be thus compelled to occupy the field by degrees; for, what with framing rules and tariffs, hiring and fitting up public-houses, and selecting managers, they no doubt had work enough and to spare to be ready to commence business on the first day named in their licenses, the 1st of October, 1865. Opposition, too, resolute and bitter, had to be met. All the licensees under the old system,

1 It has not, however, been found necessary, so far, to call upon the shareholders for any part of their subscriptions.

backed by distillers and wholesale spirit dealers, were up in arms against a change which avowedly aimed at a diminution of the number of licensed houses, and the liquor consumed in them. It was easy for such opponents to work upon the prejudices and fears of the more ignorant of their customers, by representing the new company in the odious light of arbitrary interferers with the liberty of the subject, and hinting that it aimed at nothing short of robbing the poor man of his dram. Anyone who read the placards posted up last summer in the windows of our gin palaces and beerhouses, for the purpose of inflaming their frequenters against Mr. Bruce's Bill, will readily conceive the style and line of arguments available on such occasions. However, undismayed by an interested opposition for which they presumably had laid their count, the originators of the company, with capital and the open favour of all the municipal authorities behind them, proceeded confidently to the systematic realization of their idea. Starting with seventeen new houses in the autumn of 1865, they gradually increased the number, as more and more licenses fell in and were thrown into their hands, till, in 1869, all old rights having expired, they acquired a complete monopoly of the publican business of the town. Before going into the question how the monopoly works, it will be well, perhaps, to sketch shortly the manner in which it is worked.

The company is managed by a board of ten directors, half of whom are elected by the shareholders at their annual meeting, and in their turn choose five persons to fill up the body. Any inhabitant of Gothenburg, whether a shareholder or not, is eligible for a directorship, and we have it on good authority that up to the present time there has been no instance of a person so elected refusing to serve. The most important duties of the board lie in deciding how many houses it is advisable to open, and in what localities, and in selecting proper agents to manage them. The company is by law answerable, it

T

In

must be remembered, to the provincial and municipal treasuries for the license duty statutably payable upon every license it holds, but the directors are in no way bound to, and as a matter of fact do not, keep as many houses open as their licenses would warrant, but only so many as they from time to time consider sufficient to meet the wants of the population. Thus, at the present time. the company holds and pays license duty upon sixty-one licenses, but it makes use of forty-two only, viz. twentyfive for public-houses, seven for shops in which spirits are retailed for consumption off the premises, and ten allotted to hotels, restaurants, and clubs, leaving nineteen in abeyance, to be employed when and if wanted. Wherever it is decided to open a public-house, the board look out for and take a lease of some suitable premises, fit them up and furnish them for the business, and proceed to appoint a manager out of the numerous applicants who are always on the watch for notice of a vacancy. making these appointments, the company in its early days reasonably gave a preference to persons of good character who were or had been in the trade on their own account under the old system; but no one is entrusted with the ment of a house until he has signed a form of agreement with the company, in which his position and duties are fully and clearly defined. The agreement begins with a kind of preamble, by which the company, after succinctly declaring its own philanthropic motives, and disclaiming all idea of private profit, expresses a confident hope that the manager will, on his part, do all that in him lies to forward his employers' aims. It is then agreed that all sales of spirits and wines are to be credited to the company, the manager looking for his own private profits solely to the sale of malt liquors, soda-water, tea and coffee, cigars, and eatables. Every publican is by law required to keep eatables ready for his customers, and the Gothenburg manager further binds himself to supply hot meats whenever called for. He expressly agrees, too, to serve spirits and wines

manage

for ready money only, and in strict accordance with the company's tariff of prices; to procure his supplies of spirits and wines exclusively from the company; to pay in weekly to the company's bank all his receipts from the sale of their stock, and to furnish them with fortnightly accounts of the quantities of spirituous liquors in his house. No music is to be performed on the premises, nor may the manager exercise any other calling, without the special leave of the directors. Finally, as a guarantee for the due performance of the contract, the manager agrees to find approved security in some definite amount; and rights are reserved to either party of terminating the employment upon two months' notice, and to the company of dismissing the manager at any time, without notice or compensation, in the event of misconduct on his part.

This agreement signed, the manager is installed in the premises to which he has been appointed. He finds himself in possession of rent-free quarters, furnished, warmed, lighted, and stocked with wines and spirits at the company's expense, and, to assist him in carrying out his promises, has always before his eyes a placarded copy of the company's regulations, as to the maintenance of order, the hours of closing, ready-money payments, and so on. His interest is all on the side of the regulations; for as, by the terms of his agreement, not a farthing is to come to his pocket from the spirits consumed on the premises, he is not likely to entice customers to "overload" themselves. Besides which, drunkenness and noise are sure to frighten away the quiet folk who want food and coffee, on which he may make a profit; so that the chances are all in favour of the orderly management of the company's houses. The possibility of a manager being dishonest, however, must of course be taken into account; so the board keep an inspector, who is charged with the responsible duty of constantly visiting the company's various houses, and looking closely into the way in which each is conducted. He examines

« VorigeDoorgaan »