The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 71
Appendix IV. — Report of the Working of the Gothenburg System since the year 1876
Appendix IV.
Report of the Working of the Gothenburg System since the year 1876.
The scheme for regulating the sale of intoxicating liquors, widely known under the name of the Gothenburg system, originated in Sweden in the year 1865. The object aimed at by its founders was the decrease of the widespread poverty of the working classes, in so far as it was caused by the abuse of intoxicating liquors. With these ends in view, the authorities agreed to transfer the public-house licenses then existing in Gothenburg to a company, who consented to undertake the business on the understanding that neither the shareholders nor the persons engaged as managers should derive any profits from the sales beyond a fixed percentage on the capital invested.
1. | In the consumption of spirit per head of the population. |
2. | In the convictions for drunkenness (proportionally to the population). |
3. | In the number of cases of delirium tremens. |
Year. * | Quantity of Spirits Consumed. given in Litres. | Population. | Consumption per Head, given in Litres. |
---|---|---|---|
1876 | 1,777,728 | 61,505 | 28.9 |
1877 | 1,732,589 | 63,391 | 27.33 |
1878 | 1,660,197 | 65,697 | 25.27 |
1879 | 1,491,890 | 66,840 | 22.32 |
1880 | 1,412,097 | 68,477 | 20.62 |
1881 | 1,396,764 | 7,1533 | 19.53 |
1882 | 1,311,479 | 72,555 | 18.08 |
1883 | 1,431,000 | 77,653 | 18.43 |
1884 | 1,497,662 | 80,811 | 18.53 |
1885 | 1,554,216 | 84,450 | 18.4 |
1886 | 1,596,245 | 88,230 | 18.09 |
1887 | 1,545,384 | 91,396 | 16.91 |
1888 | 1,580,927 | 94,370 | 16.75 |
1889 | 1,568,154 | 97,677 | 16.05 |
Year. | Cases of Delirium Tremens. | Year. | Cases of Delirium Tremens. | Year. | Cases of Delirium Tremens. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1872 | 123 | 1878 | 64 | 1884 | 55 |
1873 | 159 | 1879 | 42 | 1885 | 84 |
1874 | 109 | 1880 | 44 | 1886 | 56 |
1875 | 80 | 1881 | 53 | 1887 | 62 |
1876 | 89 | 1882 | 52 | 1888 | 30 |
1877 | 89 | 1883 | 52 | 1889 | 42 |
From a commercial point of view the affairs of the Gothenburg [unclear: Licensing] Company are very prosperous. In 1889, after paying the six per cent, to the shareholders, defraying all expenses of management, and handing [unclear: over] £4022 4s. 5d. as compensation to publicans and merchants for the loss of [unclear: their] licenses, it was able to pay £37,901 14s. 5d. into the municipal and [unclear: provincial] treasuries.
The sums paid into the public treasuries are used for bettering the condition [unclear: of] the poorer classes and furthering works of general utility.
In order to make the evidence with regard to the working of the [unclear: Gothenburg] system as complete as possible, Her Majesty's consuls at Stockholm and [unclear: Gothen]burg were requested to obtain returns from the vice-consuls within their respective districts.
Replies have been received from twenty-two vice-consuls in all, [unclear: and] without exception favourable to the new system. In every case, except one, [unclear: where] statistical information has been supplied, the figures show a decrease in [unclear: the] quantity of spirits consumed and in the number of fines for drunkenness, never [unclear: less] and often greater than is the case for Gothenburg. This seems to be of [unclear: importance] in showing that the scheme works quite as well when applied on a small scale as [unclear: it] does for such considerable towns as Stockholm or Gotten burg. The single [unclear: exception] above named is in the case of Umea, which was partially destroyed by fire [unclear: two] years ago. The large influx of working men, brought into the district for [unclear: the] rebuilding of the town, seems a quite sufficient explanation of the increase of [unclear: crime] and drunkenness which appears to have recently taken place there.
Another unanimously favourable expression of opinion was obtained from the governors of provinces in Sweden in the year 1877. A committee of the [unclear: Diet] appointed by the King, had submitted a series of questions to these officials, [unclear: of]which the fourth stood as follows:—" What results have been found to accrue from the transfer of the liquor trade to companies in different communes, in the way d promoting order and morality?" From the résumé of the replies [unclear: received] published by Dr. Wieselgren in his account of the Gothenburg system, the [unclear: governors] appear to have borne unbroken and unvarying testimony as to the beneficial [unclear: effects] which had followed the application of the system.
* In the accounts of the company the year is reckoned from October 1 to September 30. The year 1876, therefore, really includes three months of 1875, and so forth.
In the year 1889, 3282 convictions for drunkenness appear on the Gothenburg registers, as against 2410 in 1876. This shows a slight improvement, considering the large increase of population which has occurred in the interval; for if the convictions had maintained the same proportion to the population, and had kept pace with its increase, they would have stood at about. 3900 for the year 1889. Still, the progress in this particular is much less than might have been expected from a consideration of the great diminution in the quantity of liquor consumed, and in the number of cases of delirium tremens, and the explanation probably is that the police surveillance has become much stricter of late years.
This shows an absolute improvement of more than 50 per cent., and an improvement relative to the increased population of about 70 per cent.