Gin · History · Short entry

Gin Act of 1736

Pushed through by Sir Joseph Jekyll, the 1736 Gin Act imposed a duty of 20 shillings a gallon and a £50 retail licence. It provoked riots in London in 1737 and was repealed in 1743.

Location: London, United Kingdom

1736

Duty of 20s per gallon and an annual £50 retail licence.

Why it mattered

A campaign by moral reformers, bishops and the Society for the Reformation of Manners against soaring gin consumption.

Prohibition by price

Home spirit production rose from 3.8 million gallons in 1730 to 6.4 million in 1735. Sir Joseph Jekyll's bill, reluctantly accepted by Walpole's ministry, set a duty of 20 shillings a gallon and a £50 annual retail licence. Enforcement led to rioting across the capital in 1737 and a surge of prosecutions in 1738, but the Act was then little enforced and was repealed in 1743, when licences fell to 20 shillings. Warner's study found the major acts worked only briefly before consumption rose again.

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