The production, sale and taxation of spirits have been part of state policy for a long time. The author of the article discusses the production, distribution and consumption of alcohol in Zamość in the early 19th century. At that time, revenue from alcohol sales tax (so-called czopowe) was the most important item in Zamość’s budget, which made distilling, inn-keeping and brewing crucial for the town’s economy. At that time, making profits on the sale of alcohol was the exclusive privilege of the Zamoyski family entail, but it was ceded to the town’s authorities. The author describes auctions (invitations to tender) for the collection of czopowe, which were extremely popular among entrepreneurs, especially Jewish ones. Two of them are presented in the article: Esther Herrn, who also owned a brewery and was a tycoon in this business, and Moses Erlicher, who came from a well-known Zamość merchant family. The author lists the names of several dozen innkeepers in Zamość at that time, includes a map and a list of the town’s inns, meaderies, etc. (over 40 items), identifies the location of the famous Janowiec inn, estimates the amount of the alcohol produced and consumed in the town, discusses various types of vodka, mead, and liqueur, discusses the rise in the price of alcohol, compares its prices to those of foodstuffs, discusses the declining wine-making tradition, and presents production technologies of the day.
Citation rules
Altmetric indicators
Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.