Ever tried to buy a bottle of wine in store on a Saturday afternoon in Sweden? Satomi Miyata dig deep in Sweden’s relationship to alcohol in the week’s column.
The older you get, the more restrictions you will find in your life. More of emotional kind of restrictions, I would say. Something that tells you what to and what not to do. But then, we are not too damn to let our “grown up life” just about being nostalgic about our youth when we could behave as our fancy takes us.
Alcohol is adults’ creation to fulfill their need for a short-lasted, yet totally worthy escape from their daily restrictions. This argument seems especially relevant for the Swedes’ case of drinking culture. In my own eyes, Swedes seem very self-restraint, working-hard and reserved people during weekdays. But when they drink, they drink “a lot”. The contrast of Swedes before and after a few shots of alcohol always gives me a whole new perspective on them.
Yet, what interests me more is the history of alcohol in Sweden. The idea of Systembolaget, the only government-owned retail chain allowed to sell alcohol more than 3.5 percent, seems unfamiliar to many foreigners. What is there behind this unusual state-involvement in regulating people’s liquor consumption?
The industrial revolution started in Sweden in 19th century. In prior to this, agriculture and manual industry were the main industries. During this time, bars or pubs played an important role for laborers as an informal place where they could exchange daily information and develop mutual cooperation. However, this drinking culture seen in labor class fades away after the revolution.
As industrialization proceeded and productivity of alcohol improved, excessive consumption of alcohol started to become a serious problem in the society. This was followed by the strong temperance movement, which started by a protestant clergyman in1830 and reached its peak in the beginning of 20th century. The rise of such movement was seen in other countries, thus it was nothing special in Sweden.
However, the characteristics of the movement were very unique in that it was led by mostly labor class, who used to possess the drinking culture mentioned earlier. This means that labor class abandoned their own culture and followed the moral that majority of middle class had presented. What was the case behind the social process of reaching consensus on the moral, especially in a matter of alcohol?
The main reason for this is that there was relatively small class collision. Before industrialization, majority of people were independent farmers and quite affluent, whereas the collapse of Swedish Empire lowered the position of nobility. This class structure with small gap made possible the slow class mobilization into the creation of majority of middle class. In addition, the overall high literacy rate among people facilitated the spread of certain morals from middle class and the integration of the society.
As a result, the movement was accompanied by major support from the society and several sets of rules on liquor were set, which led to the existence of Systembolaget until now. This explains me a lot to me about Swedes’ daily temperance in drinking and binge drinking as a pullback towards it, which totally makes sense considering that we need to have time to “let go of ourselves” when we become “grown-up”.
