The gin epidemic: Much ado about what?

While there is no doubt that the era of the 'gin epidemic' was associated w ith poverty and social unrest, the surge in gin drinking was localized to L ondon and was a concomitant, not the cause, of these problems. The two main underlying social problems were widespread overcrowding and poverty. The f ormer was related to an unprecedented migration of people from the country to London. The latter stemmed from an economic ideology called 'poverty the ory', whose basic premise was that, by keeping the 'inferior order' in pove rty, English goods would be competitive and would remain that way since wor kers would be completely dependent on their employers. Widespread overcrowd ing and poverty led to societal unrest which manifested itself in increased drunkenness when cheap gin became available after Parliament did away with former distilling monopolies that had kept prices high. Reformers ignored the social causes of this unrest and, instead, focused on gin drinking by t he poor which they feared was endangering England's wealth and security by enfeebling its labour force, and reducing its manpower by decreasing its po pulation. Part of this hostility was also related to gin itself. While drun kenness was often spoken of affectionately when it was induced by beer, Eng land's national drink, gin was considered a foreign drink, and therefore le ss acceptable. These concerns were voiced less often after the passage of t he Tippling Act of 1751, which resulted in an increase in gin prices and de creased consumption. However, the second half of the century was also a per iod in which England's military victory over the French gave it new wealth and power, which dispelled upper-class fears about an enfeebled and dissolu te working class. It was also an era when new public health measures, such as mass inoculation against smallpox, and a decrease in the marrying age, l ed to a population increase that dispelled reformist fears about manpower s hortages. The conclusion is that, while the lower cost of gin sparked the ' gin epidemic', the social unrest associated with this unprecedented surge i n gin consumption was exacerbated, rather than caused, by the increase in d rinking.