Gin Act 1751

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The Gin Act 1751 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (citation 24 Geo. II c. 40) made the distillation of gin illegal in England.

First imported from the Netherlands in the 1690s, gin began to rival beer as the most popular drink in England. In 1689 the English government opened the distilling trade to all English people who paid certain taxes. Over the next sixty years, however, the government regulated the sale of gin with an inconsistent taxation policy. Politicians and religious leaders began to argue that gin drinking encouraged laziness and criminal behaviour.

In 1729 Parliament passed a Gin Act that increased the tax on the drink. With the Gin Act 1736 the government imposed a high licence fee for gin retailers and a high per-gallon tax. These actions were unpopular with the working-classes and in 1743 resulted in riots in London. The licence fee and tax were significantly lowered within a few years.

The Gin Act of 1751 prohibited gin distillers from selling to unlicensed merchants, restricted retail licenses to substantial property holders, and charged high fees to those merchants eligible for retail licences.