Fish into Wine: The Historical Anthropology of Demand for
Alcohol in Seventeenth-Century Newfoundland
Authors
Peter Pope
Abstract
A strong demand for alcohol and tobacco in seventeenth-century Newfoundland and
throughout the North American fishing periphery is an example of the distinct role
maritime communities played in the emergence of a consumer society. Exchange of
these little luxuries served social and cultural as well as economic needs. Demand
for red wines and brandy in particular reflected contemporary humoral theories
about the human metabolism. In this period, distribution, no less than restriction,
of alcohol can be seen as a form of social control.
