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 which increased the retail tax to 5 shillings per gallon. With the Gin Act 1736 the government imposed a high licence fee for gin retailers and a 20 shillings retail tax per gallon. These actions were unpopular with the working-classes and in 1743 resulted in riots in London. The license 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 licenses. To offer the masses another invigorating (and analcholic) beverage the import of indian tea was also encouraged.
