From Eau de Vie to the Bane of the Nation: Distilled Spirits, Drunkenness, and the Debate over Alcohol in Imperial Trade, 1650–1800

Sugar production in the British Caribbean spawned the highly profitable rum trade that served to permanently alter drinking patterns across the North American colonies. This widespread consumption of rum in the seventeenth century served as one aspect of a growing trend across the Atlantic. Though initially associated with medicinal remedies, as the “hot” qualities of the liquors served as a balance against excessive “cold” humors, the recreational consumption of both rum and gin sparked a series of transatlantic debates about the place of alcohol in society, including its basic necessity. Looking specifically at the consumption of rum in the Caribbean and colonial New England, and gin in London, this paper analyzes the conflicted discourse that emerged regarding the perceived need for societal control as well as the protection of imperial trade.

In spite of the complaints made by colonial officials against the increased consumption of rum in North America, the British metropole maintained a consistently positive stance toward the production and exportation of rum in the Caribbean. However, this support of rum in London occurred simultaneously with a governmental denouncement of the English distilling industry and the production of gin, which proved to be increasingly devastating to the “meaner sort” of London. Through imperial interests and a desire to protect colonial trade, British officials in London stubbornly portrayed rum as wholesome and nutritious, while colonial leaders in America declared rum to be a social menace. The opposing arguments between colony and metropole demonstrate the ways economic interests of the growing empire influenced British perceptions of rum, gin, and the role of spirituous liquors in daily life.