|
CHAPTER II
GOTHENBURG CITY : BARS, BOTTLES, AND DRUNKENNESS
IT is naturally to the city of Gothenburg itself
that one looks for the most characteristic example of what
is now known throughout the world as the Gothenburg System;
but the visitor there who takes the trouble to ascertain
the actual facts speedily learns how complete is the popular
delusion that the ' liquor traffic' of Gothenburg is under
the control of a company or ' Bolag,' such control being
exercised merely by reason of the said company having in
its hands the bar trade of Gothenburg. In point of fact,
the Gothenburg company certainly does not ' control' the
liquor traffic of the city, though, on the other hand, it
is responsible for a good deal more than bar sales alone.
The immediate purpose for which the Gothenburg company was
called into being was to control, not the entire trade in
alcoholic beverages, but only the trade in spirits, arid
especially the native spirit known as ' branvin.' To this
end it holds from the municipal authorities all local licenses
for the sale of spirits, formerly put up to auction by the
municipality for disposal to the highest bidder. Of licenses
for the sale of spirits on the premises it has sixty-one,
and of these it uses forty-four, the remaining seventeen
being not used. Of the forty-four licenses, thirteen are
used for spirit bars which are directly managed by the company
itself; four are used in connection with eating-houses set
up by the company, where liquor can be obtained with meals
only; and the remaining seventeen are granted to the keepers
of better-class restaurants, boarding-houses, etc., who,
however, are obliged to buy their spirits (though not their
wine or beer) from the company. Of licenses for the sale
of spirits for consumption ' off' the premises the company
have thirty-three, and of these they use seven for retail
shops of their own ; they grant twenty-three to wine and
spirit merchants in return for the payment of about £250
a year each, and three are not used.
The wine and spirit merchants here referred to are prohibited,
under the conditions of their permits, from selling the
native brandy (branvin), for which the Bolag desires to
have a monopoly ; but there is no doubt whatever that they
do an enormous retail business in the better class of spirits,
and also in wines, over which business the Bolag has no
control, provided that they do not sell in quantities of
less than a full bottle, and that their prices do not compete
with the price of branvin. What the real extent of this
trade may be is more than any outsider can say. One leading
citizen in Gothenburg whom I consulted as a possible authority
on the subject could only tell me that it must be (as he
put it) 'very
enormous.' This I could well believe when I found that some
of the merchants had large shops in leading thoroughfares
of Gothenburg, at a rental of anything up to £400
or £500 a year; when I saw from official statistics
that the importations of spirits (cognac, whisky, rum, liqueurs,
etc.) into Gothenburg, mainly for distribution by such merchants,
amounted (in round figures) to 142,000 gallons in 1900,
164,000 gallons in 1901, 144,000 gallons in 1902, 165,000
gallons in 1903, 110,000 gallons in 1904, and 108,000 gallons
in 1905 ; and when, also, I was told (though here I cannot
guarantee the accuracy of the statement) that one Gothenburg
wine and spirit merchant alone has paid as much as £12,000
a year for branvin he has bought from the distillers for
conversion into what is known as ' Swedish cognac,' one
of the superior spirits which these merchants may sell.
But the trade done by the merchants is, naturally, not confined
to Gothenburg. They have the advantages of a large local
consumption for the beverages in which they deal; but by
means of agents they spread the business throughout the
greater part of Sweden as well. Although, therefore, the
spirits here referred to may be purchased only by the '
better classes,' they nevertheless form a most important
part of the liquor trade as a whole.
Then there were in Gothenburg, in 1905, between 800 and
900 persons who sold beer either ' on' or ' off' the premises.
In that year each holder of the ' trader's license ' which
every shopkeeper in Sweden must take out was authorized,
by virtue thereof, to sell beer for consumption ' off' the
premises, no matter what his own particular business might
be. How many of such traders actually took advantage of
this position is not known, but the number was given to
me by the chief of police as from 600 to 700. Of 'on' beer
licenses there are 167 in Gothenburg; but in the discussions
that arose on the subject it was the question of the 'off'
sale that was considered of the greater importance. Under
the existing regulations the police were consulted in regard
to the ' on' licenses, but had no voice in respect to the
'off' licenses. This was altered at the beginning of 1906,
when it was stipulated that all persons wanting to sell
beer for consumption off the premises must make special
application for a permit, in the concession of which the
opinion of the police as to character of house, occupier,
and neighbourhood was to be taken. In this way the number
of places in Gothenburg selling beer for 'off' consumption
has now been reduced from a vague 600 or 700 to an actual
440. The number of ' on' licenses remains about the same,
so that there are in Gothenburg to-day still 600 places
where beer is sold quite independently of the Bolag.
Nor has the monopoly of the Bolag in the matter even of
branvin been an absolute one, for there are in Sweden about
seventy-five holders of privileged licenses (five in towns
and seventy in country districts) who have not only been
able to deal in branvin, but have controlled about 40 per
cent, of the spirit trade in Sweden. Their powers in regard
to the ' off' trade will, however, be greatly reduced (at
the instigation of the
Bolags) under a new Act coming into force in October, 1907.
It must be evident to the reader, from the facts given above,
that the control exercised by the Gothenburg Bolag applies
to a part only of the ' liquor trade.' It nevertheless represents,
as already indicated, much more than the sale of branvin
at the thirteen drinking-bars. While the attention of writers
on the subject of the Gothenburg System, as adopted in that
city, has been concentrated almost without exception on
the drinking-bars and their limitations and restrictions,
practically nothing has been said by them concerning the
retail shops also conducted by the Bolag. Yet the annual
report of the company shows that, while their bar sales
of spirits amounted to 648,766 litres in 1905, their retail
sales were 1,198,697 litres, or 549,930 litres more.
In visiting Gothenburg, I went to some of the retail shops
established by the Bolag, and I must confess that what I
there found threw a new light on the subject, and one for
which 1 had been in no way prepared. I found that, while
a very effective control was certainly being exercised over
the bar sale of branvin in one set of shops, there was a
much larger sale of branvin in bottles proceeding in another
set of shops, under conditions which left everyone free
to buy as much as he pleased, provided he could raise 1
kr. 35 ore (equal to about Is. 6d.) for each litre (1| pints),
this being the minimum quantity sold. The business done,
too, in these retail shops is almost incredible. In one
that I went into with the British Consul at Gothenburg,
Mr. John Duff, I learned that the sales represented a turnover
of no less than 360,000 kr. (£20,000) a year, and
this, too, although the rental of the shop would probably
not exceed £100 a year. The sales on a quiet day were
about 300 litres. On Wednesdays they rose to about 600 litres;
but on Saturdays they would run up to no less than 4,000
litres—roughly, 880 gallons. This would be a higher
figure than the average for the whole of the shops (at another
of which I learned that the annual turnover was £11,000)
; but, assuming such average to be 3,000 litres, we get
the fact that from these seven retail shops belonging to
the Gothenburg Bolag there are sent out every Saturday no
fewer than 21,000 litres (say 4,620 gallons) of native brandy
for consumption in the homes of the people either in Gothenburg
or in the country round about; and those who know the weaknesses
of the Swedish populace assured me that the greater part
of the quantity would certainly be consumed before Saturday
night closed.
I question very much if the well-meaning Bishops, politicians,
and others in England who applaud 'disinterested management,'
and would fain see it established in this country, have
yet realized the particular phase of the business here indicated.
If, instead of merely reading books on the subject, or of
visiting the Bolag drinking-bars in Gothenburg in the quiet
hours of the day, and becoming enamoured with the restrictions
there, they would visit the Bolag retail shops on a Saturday
afternoon, their ideas of the
Gothenburg System would probably undergo considerable modification.
They would, at least, see the art of distributing large
bottles of raw spirit among the working-class community
reduced to a degree of real smartness and businesslike expedition
which could not well be surpassed. I am quite sure that
the most energetic of storekeepers even in the United States
would hardly fill 4,000 bottles, brought in by perhaps 3,500
customers, in a small shop between the hours of 9 a.m. and
6 p.m. with greater despatch. At the back of the shop stand
five large casks of branvin. These communicate with a series
of taps along the counter, each surmounted by a glass decanter-like
measure, holding exactly 1 litre of spirit. One twist of
the handle, and the decanter fills up with branvin ready
for the customer. Another twist, and in just about fifteen
or sixteen seconds the spirit flows out of the decanter
into the customer's bottle. In a few more seconds the attendant
has driven a cork into the bottle (a basket of corks and
a mallet standing by each tap), and the one customer will
have paid and made room for the next, the whole transaction
having lasted just about half a minute, though there is,
of course, some waiting when the shop is crowded. So it
goes on throughout the day, and on Saturdays almost without
intermission, until the arrival of closing-time at six.
I was interested in watching the customers; but as significant
an incident as any of those I saw was when a man from the
country— evidently a carpenter—came in with a
small cask and some bottles, in which he took away 5 litres
of branvin. He was, apparently, buying not only for himself,
but also for some neighbours who had commissioned him to
make their purchases for them. It is in this way that a
large amount of branvin gets distributed throughout the
rural districts where the local sources of supply may be
either very limited or nonexistent, but where the local
consumption may nevertheless be considerable.
Reverting to the liquor bars, I can willingly join in the
chorus of praise in which all writers on the subject have
indulged in regard to the excellence of their design and
general arrangements. They are spoken of as a very great
improvement indeed on the public-houses in vogue before
the company system was adopted ; yet I doubt if that improvement
is really any greater, in degree, than that which has been
brought about in hundreds of instances in England where
brewery firms who have acquired old and dilapidated public-house
property have rebuilt, and provided in its place larger,
more commodious, and better furnished houses, quite equal
in appearance and comfort to anything that is to be seen
in the Bolag shops in Gothenburg. One must remember, too,
that in England the owners of public-house property are
not allowed to make structural alterations without the consent
of the licensing magistrates, and such consent is often
hard to get in London, and in some other places is practically
unobtainable ; whereas the director of the Gothenburg Bolag
seems to have a perfectly free hand in regard to structural
and other
arrangements. With any approach to the same degree of liberty,
English brewers and publicans generally would, I feel assured,
produce even better results than those seen at Gothenburg,
even if, in many instances, they are not doing so already.
Much, again, has been said of the provision made for the
supply of food, as well as spirits, by the Bolag ; and this
has gone so far that between 12 noon and 2 p.m. liquor is
served with food only—a regulation, however, which
does not prevent a man from ordering two drinks and a sandwich
(provided he pays 20 ore for the latter), swallowing the
drinks, and leaving the sandwich.
But the arrangements in respect to food or meals are in
no way superior, as a whole, to those made in many of the
' managed' houses in, say, the Tyne district, which I took
the opportunity of seeing on my return from Sweden. Whereas,
too, the managers of the Bolag houses get no percentage
on the food consumed, and no longer have for themselves
the profits on the beer and temperance drinks sold, I found
that the landlady of many a modest public-house in the Tyne
district, owned by brewers, was getting a fair return for
herself from supplying food to customers when the business
was not sufficiently large for such supply to be undertaken
by the brewery company, although the latter not only encouraged
her in so doing, but even guaranteed her against loss. I
say, therefore, without hesitation, that anything done by
the Gothenburg Bolag in the way of supplying food to either
working-class or better-class customers could be more than
matched by what I have seen under ordinary public-house
management in England.
Then, no writer in praise of the Bolag system fails to lay
much emphasis on the fact that the company do not use all
the licenses originally conceded to them; that the houses
are in no instances in back streets, and that they are essentially
unpretending in appearance. All this is certainly true ;
but it is equally true that there are bars enough for the
business done, and that they are located in exactly those
spots (in the immediate neighbourhood of markets and docks)
where they can be most readily entered, and where, in fact,
they would get the most trade. As for the modest nature
of the signboard over the door, that is a matter of no importance
whatever, since every inhabitant of Gothenburg who wants
a drink of branvin knows exactly where it can be obtained.
In some instances two Bolag shops are within a stone's-throw
of each other. In one the shop has entrances from two different
streets, with a bar at each end, so that there are really
two public-houses in one. In fact, had the company been
deliberately inspired by a desire to do the maximum of possible
business, while getting the credit for ' reducing the number
of licenses,' it could not have placed its bars in better
positions for the attainment of that end. A Gothenburg resident
once said to a Bolag official, ' Why don't you put your
houses on the top of the hills ?' meaning the hills which
overlook the city. ' If we did that,' was the reply, 'we
should get no customers.' ' But is not that what you want
?' The Bolag official did not say.
The attention of the visitor is also called to the reading-rooms
and the waiting-rooms for the unemployed which have been
provided out of the Bolag profits. These serve a useful
purpose, no doubt, but they are not to be compared with
the excellent public institutions which certain firms of
brewers in England have given to towns in whose welfare
they are interested. There is, however, one respect in which
Gothenburg conditions are unique: in the same building there
will be one set of rooms for the working classes, and another
for their social superiors ; but the former rooms are closed
two hours earlier than the latter. One can imagine what
would happen in an English public-house if any attempt were
made to introduce class distinctions such as these —the
patrons of the bar being turned out of the house two hours
before the favoured ones in the ' parlour.'
Elaborate tables have been published from time to time with
a view to showing that there has been a decreased consumption
of spirits in Gothenburg under the Bolag system ; but these
tables have referred only to the sales effected by the Bolag
itself, and have not included the very considerable sales
of the private wine and spirit merchants, those of Scotch
whisky, for example, being spoken of as ' enormous.' Without
the figures which these merchants alone could supply, if
is useless to attempt to give any figures as to the ' total'
consumption of spirits in Gothenburg. The Bolag certainly,
claims a decrease in its own sales (though not at! all a
remarkable decrease in the last fifteen years), but the
consumption even of Bolag liquors per head of the population
is substantially higher in Gothenburg than the total per
head for the whole of Sweden. It is also uncertain whether
or not such decrease as the Bolag figures show may not be
accounted for by the transfer of a certain proportion of
the Bolag trade—following on the restrictions enforced—
to the beershops or beer-dealers, or to the spirit merchants
; but in any case the Bolag figures by themselves are absolutely
worthless as evidence whether the consumption of spirits
of all kinds (irrespective of beer) is increasing or decreasing
in the city of Gothenburg.
Subject to the observations just made, I reproduce from
the annual report of the Gothenburg Bolag the table on p.
27, which shows the bar and the retail sales of spirits
by that company since 1875. The figures given in the last
three columns of this table are regarded in some quarters
as satisfactory evidence of a decline in consumption in
Gothenburg during the period in question; but, as already
explained, they suggest no more than a decline in the patronage
of the Bolag shops; and, taking into account the other sources
of supply to which I have referred, and the increased patronage
thereof, I fail to find any evidence of a real decline in
the consumption of alcoholic beverages in Gothenburg at
all. To my own mind, the special significance of the table
lies in the very substantial increase shown in the retail
trade of the Bolag as compared with the bar trade. The greater
the difficulties put in the way of getting drams at the
bar, the greater is the temptation offered to men to procure
a bottleful, and do their drinking at home. Whether or not
this procedure is in accord with
SALES OF SPIRITS BY BOLAG.
the best interests of the working classes, I leave the reader
to say for himself; but the point I must urge with all possible
emphasis on all who would judge the matter aright is that
conclusions based on the character and extent of the Gothen-burg
bar trade, without taking fully into account this still
larger retail trade, must necessarily convey an entirely
wrong impression.
Whatever uncertainty there may be in the figures respecting
consumption, there is no room for doubt that there has been
of late a substantial increase in the amount of drunkenness
in Gothenburg. The convictions for drunkenness per head
of the population since 1865, when the Bolag was formed,
are given on p. 29.
It is certain that some of the fluctuations noticeable in
this table have been due to economic causes, and especially
to changes in trade, wages, and character of population.
There is, also, no doubt that some of them are to be attributed,
in the case of Gothenburg as in that of other Scandinavian
cities where the Gothenburg System has been adopted, to
divergencies in the policy adopted from time to time by
the police in regard to drunkenness. It should be remembered
that, wherever the Gothenburg System is put in force, the
local municipality and the liquor company at once become
partners in the enterprise, for the credit of which the
local authorities will desire that as lenient an eye as
possible may be cast upon drunkards, so that the statistics
of drunkenness may be kept down. This has undoubtedly been
the case at certain periods in the history of Gothenburg,
though the present chief constable of the city has the reputation
of being an extremely capable officer, who would not be
likely to tolerate any weakness or negleet of duty on the
part of his men. It may even be that the recent increase
is due in part to this greater efficiency rather than to
any actual increase in street drunkenness, the figures now
only reaching a point at which they should have stood before.
GROWTH OF DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
On the other hand, there is reason to fear that a considerable
amount of unrecorded drunkenness goes on in the houses of
the working-class community, owing to the large quantities
of branvin sold at the retail shops of the Bolag for home
consumption, the victims sleeping off the effects, and thus
not coming under the notice of the police unless actual
disorder arises. In these circumstances the real condition
of the city is, possibly, even worse than the figures suggest.
The question as to the extent to which the increased drunkenness
in Gothenburg may or may not be due to the increased consumption
of beer is one I propose to consider in a later chapter;
but before leaving the general subject there are two other
tables which I think might usefully be reproduced.
The following shows the days of the week on which the arrests
for drunkenness in Gothenburg took place in the years stated
:
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG: DAYS OF THE
WEEK ON WHICH ARRESTS WERE MADE.
My next table gives a return as to statements by persons
arrested for drunkenness in Gothenburg concerning the places
where they got their last drink. The table is an old one,
but I found there was none other available, for a series
of years, and this will serve my immediate purpose:
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG: HOW THE ARRESTED
GOT THEIR LAST DRINK.
I warn my readers against putting implicit faith in this
second table. It is avowedly based on the statements of
drunken men, and the Bolag officials especially doubt the
accuracy of the column headed ' Bolag Bars,' alleging that,
owing to their dislike of the restrictions imposed, Gothenburg
drunkards are in the habit of saying ' Bolag ' when asked
concerning their last drink, so as to revenge themselves
on the managers. It is also clear that, although the last
drink may have been taken in a beerhouse, there is no evidence
as to the number of drams of branvin by which it was preceded.
The most significant of the figures (apart from the steady
advance in the total) are, to my mind, those in the third
column, and these, probably, are fairly trustworthy. Looking
both at these figures and at the previous table, I find
ample evidence to support the view (1) that the chief drunkenness
in Gothenburg occurs on the Saturday; and (2) that it results
in an ever-increasing degree from the fact that men purchase
litre bottles of spirits on the Saturday at the retail shops,
as provision for the Sunday, but are unable to resist the
temptation of emptying them the same night.
|
1745 
Back 