Historical background of alcohol

Nobody knows how long ago it was that humans first learnt to ferment sugars into alcohol, but the founders of the Babylonian Empire were brewing beer 4000BC. The Greeks invented the tavern and were the first to organise mass production and systematic export of wine. Plato and Socrates drew attention to the darker side of boozing, including its association with public disorder and violence and failure to fulfil a useful role within the family, difficulties in work and productivity, and accidents.
The small Roman vineyards that sprang up around 700BC were insufficient for home consumption, so trade routes for importation developed rapidly. By AD20 heavy daily drinking had become the norm.

The Bible veers from condemnation to endorsement, but generally there has been a tendency down the ages for Christian theologians to be indulgent towards over-imbibers. After the decline of the Roman Empire it fell to the Christian monasteries in many countries to safeguard the traditions of brewing. Around the same period, approximately AD616, the adherents of Islam were forbidden alcohol by the law laid down in the Koran.

In medieval Britain, beer was often safer to drink than water from the local river or well, and was also seen as an important source of energy and nutrition. Taverns appeared around the beginning of the 12th century. From the 15th century onwards, alcohol consumption became increasingly located outside the family home, and the alehouse or tavern evolved as the centre of the working man’s social life. This considerably reduced women’s access to alcohol.

The popular belief that alcohol was generally beneficial, was endorsed by 17th century doctors who recommended it for a wide range of conditions, from depression to venereal disease to gout.

The 18th century saw the peak of both British and American drinking, but it was also read more