The licensed trade : an independent survey / by Edwin A. Pratt.

  • Pratt, Edwin A., 1854-1922.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The licensed trade : an independent survey / by Edwin A. Pratt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a mortgage on his house from a brewer; while a ‘ managed ’ house is one that is under the charge of a person who receives a stated wage from the person to whom it belongs, or by whom it is rented. Public-houses that are really free in the fullest sense of the word represent to-day a very small proportion of the whole—perhaps not more than 6 or 8 per cent. But the principle of the * tie ’ is by no means of recent innovation, as many persons suppose. It has been in vogue ever since the brewing interest came into the hands of large capitalists, and it must be regarded as mainly due to the policy of our Legislature in regard to the liquor traffic in general. One inevitable result of the licensing system in its various phases of restriction and limitation has been to convert the sale of alcoholic beverages into a valuable monopoly, and a person desirous of becoming a licensed victualler or a beer- house-keeper has required to control a large, or a com- paratively large, amount of capital, especially if he wished to pay off the out-going tenant, and be entire owner of goodwill and fixtures. In very many instances the would-be publican has not had sufficient money of his own, and the practice for generations has been for an individual in this position to borrow money from a firm of brewers to enable him to complete his purchase. This money he has borrowed on mortgage, with the obligation to deal with the brewers for his beer. Is there anything immoral or inimical to the public interests in this principle ? It is difficult to see how there can be. It is a commercial arrangement which one section of traders ought to be perfectly free to make with another, to their mutual advantage. Bakers and grocers and other tradesmen of limited means are glad to be set up in business by wholesale dealers under like conditions, and it surely cannot be more immoral