Evolving from a rum state: Australia's alcohol consumption

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

    Abstract

    Europeans settlers in the Australian colonies had a reputation of being heavy drinkers. Rum dominated during the first few decades, followed by beer. It took until the 1970s before Australia's annual per capita consumption of wine exceeded 10 L, and even then, wine represented only one-fifth of national alcohol consumption. But over the next two decades, per capita wine consumption nearly trebled and beer consumption shrunk – the opposite of what happened to global alcohol consumption shares. This paper draws on newly compiled data sets to (i) reveal that Australia was not much more alcoholic than Britain or southern Europe during the nineteenth century and (ii) help explain why it took so long for a consumer interest in wine to emerge in Australia.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)724-749
    JournalAustralian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics
    Volume64
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2020

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Evolving from a rum state: Australia's alcohol consumption'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this