THE GOTHENBURG METHOD OF REGULATING THE 



LIQUOR TRAFFIC, 1892-1898.' 



GEORGE THOMPSON^ B. L. 



t 



A discussion of the establishment of the Gothenburg liquor 

 ejstem, of the principles upon which it is based, and of its opera- 

 tion through earlier years may be found in the Fifth Special 

 Import of the U. S. Commissioner of Labor published in 1893. 

 This report, which consists of two hundred and fifty-three pages, 

 wlas prepared by Dr. E. R. L. Gould and is both authoritative 

 and elaborate. It needs no duplicate. My aim therefore shall 

 be rather to supplement it, to extend it up to the present time, 

 to see whether or not the developments within the last six years 

 correspond to the former developments which Dr. Gould has so 

 clearly mirrored. 



But it may not be amiss if by ^vtay of introduction we review 

 in a cursory manner the results attained by Dr. Gould's in- 

 vestigations. In the concluding paragraph of his report, he 

 says: ''That the system is perfect no one will be sanguine 

 enough to maintain ; but that it represents the best means which 

 have yet been devised for the control of the liquor traffic where 

 licensing is permitted at all, few who understand its true char- 

 acter and have studied its operation will be bold enough to 

 deny." In 1865 when the system wtas established in Gothen- 

 burg, the city from which it has derived its name, Sweden was 

 a land of distilleries and dramshops. That nation was then 

 knoA\Ti as a nation of drunkards. Of this curse of inebriety the 

 new liquor system became a healer. As it began to operate 

 drunkenness began to decrease enormously. For the country of 

 Sweden, as a whole, the annual per capita consumption of spir- 

 ituous liquors decreased from 10.6 litres in 1865 to 6.5 litres 



^A disserfation submitted to the facultj' of the University of Wisconsin for the 

 degree of B. L., June, 1899. 



