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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 71

Appendix IV. — Report of the Working of the Gothenburg System since the year 1876

page 9

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.

It is important to notice that in the first year of operation of the new system—viz., 1866—the convictions for drunkenness in Gothenburg dropped from 2070 (at which figure they stood in the previous year) to 1424. Since 1876 there has been a steady diminution—
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.
The following tabular statement, extracted from the annual reports of the company, will show the gradual progress made during the thirteen years included between the abovementioned dates:—
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
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A tabular statement of the number of cases occurring in every year since [unclear: 18] is given below:—
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.