Today the coffee it is extremely popular in Swedenbut it has not always been like this: until the first half of the 19th century it was illegal marketing, working And sell This drink. Those who were caught in the act had to pay a salty fine and were confiscated dishes and cups – and being a luxury asset, it was a not indifferent economic damage. Initially, in 1746 the taxes on coffee were raised and subsequently, in 1956 it was officially prohibited. For the royalty of the time, the ban was justified by presumed risks to human health. The Re Gustavo IIIson of King Adolfo Federico of Sweden, led a “scientific” experiment to persuade the population of the validity of these motivations, but the real reason was purely economic.
Because it was forbidden in coffee in Sweden
Everything was born in 1746 with the king Adolfo Federico di Sweden which imposed ahigh taxation on coffee. Officially the reasons behind this choice were linked to the alleged toxicity of coffee for man. However, the increase in prices was not enough to stop this market and start from 1756 Five different laws were issued that the use of luxury goods were limited, Sweden, prohibiting The marketing, production and consumption of coffee and its derivatives.
Do you think that to legitimize this choice it seems that Re Gustavo IIIson of Adolfo, did a “Scientific” experiment With the aim of convincing the local population of the goodness of their motivations. According to the stories handed down orally, one day Gustavo III grazes two sentenced to death: one of the two was forced to drink coffee once a day, to the other tea once a day. The idea was to demonstrate that those who drink coffee has a shorter life. In reality, always according to the story of tradition, both lived more than eighty years and the one to die before was the man of tea.
What were the real reasons for the coffee call
In reality, as anticipated, the real motivations behind these prohibitions were very different. In fact, banning coffee would have brought various benefits with it, such as:
- Encourage people to buy more beerwhich could be produced locally, unlike coffee;
- Reduce imports of beans from unwary foreign countries with Swedish rulers;
- The circles in which coffee was drunk were often frequented by intellectuals against the monarchy And removing this drink reduced the meeting moments.
What happened to the smugglers of coffee
Before concluding, it is interesting to spend two more words to explain what happened to those who, in the ban period, marked coffee. The penalty changed according to the crime:
- Those who sold coffee were punished with a fine of 50 coins – equivalent to about 5 months of a sailor pay, 260 days of earnings of a worker;
- who prepared coffee with a fine of 10 coins;
- Who drinked coffee with a fine of 2 coins.
In addition, in many cases it has been reported as the authorities confiscated cups, coffee makers And everything you need to prepare the drink. To date it seems a ridiculous thing, but considering their value of the time it was a further economic damage that is anything but negligible. Overall it seems that in Sweden they were “caught” 536 criminals of coffee.
In the end, after almost 80 years of prohibitions, in 1823 The coffee He returned to being lawyer in Swedenbecoming over the decades one of the most popular drinks in the country, with consumption per capita about 7 kg per year!
