Gin Act of 1751
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The Gin Act of 1751
Gin first started to rival beer in the communities of England suffering from social dislocation after the Glorious Revolution in 1688. Gin cost around 18p to manufacture; so it could be sold at a price, which enabled anyone who wanted to get drunk to do so for far less than it would cost to get drunk on beer. Gin drinking had spread like an epidemic among the poor of England. The amount of gin produced increased 600% from 1701 to 1751 while beer production remained the same. Beer and port were considered the drinks of the rich and upper classes while gin was considered the drink of the poor and lower classes. William Hogarth captured this in his drawings of Beer Street where the rich are reading, painting, working, and building while on Gin Lane people are dying, children are being neglected, and buildings falling apart. Even the poor in workhouses would do anything to smuggle it in than to live without gin. Men were being encouraged to drink their whole week's wages and at the end of the week they would find themselves without any money to bring home to their families. These families would either starve or lower themselves to depend upon the parish. The wives of these men would often become gin drinkers themselves to such an awful point where they could no longer conceive a child, and if they could, the child was born weak and sickly...