Remember, kids! Unregulated capitalism is not your friend!
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Remember, kids!
Unregulatedcapitalism is not your friend!This lead me down a rabbit hole an introduced me to "Mother's Ruin" of the cheap gin sold at the time:
It gets even more wild the more you read of that article. One guy pawning his wife for a quart of gin...then the government crackdown when things started getting even worse!
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I pulled up the Wikipedia article for the 4 penny coffins and found that George Orwell is one of the references for it. Thought that was interesting. Here's the page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_penny_coffin
... the coffin house was popular because it offered an economical and mid-range solution for homeless clients ...
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Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get my cancerous scrotum looked at coughs up chimney dust
George Orwell wrote about his experiences with those in Down and Out in Paris and London. It's a decent book and an interesting look at poverty of the day.
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Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get my cancerous scrotum looked at coughs up chimney dust
Is that true? Did they really sleep on the ropes like that?
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I pulled up the Wikipedia article for the 4 penny coffins and found that George Orwell is one of the references for it. Thought that was interesting. Here's the page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_penny_coffin
The reference is from his first book which was all about his experiences living with the downtrodden in Paris and London. In fact that's why he used the pen name George Orwell - he didn't want to risk harming the reputation of his middle class family.
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This lead me down a rabbit hole an introduced me to "Mother's Ruin" of the cheap gin sold at the time:
It gets even more wild the more you read of that article. One guy pawning his wife for a quart of gin...then the government crackdown when things started getting even worse!
That was a nice read. Thanks for sharing!
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Is that true? Did they really sleep on the ropes like that?
I find that hard to believe. The ground would be more comfortable.
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Is that true? Did they really sleep on the ropes like that?
There would be blood loss to the limbs and nerve damage from any appreciable time strung out like that.
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Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get my cancerous scrotum looked at coughs up chimney dust
If you let capitalism go unrestrained and unregulated and uncontrolled.
Capitalist would be more than be happy to reintroduce slave labour, child labour and farming humans for slavery much like they do cattle or horses.
And do you own a house? A car? Property? ... even if you think you do, are you paying a mortgage or loan payments for these things? .. then you are not a capitalist. Even if you do own these things without any loan, chances are that if you are not a millionaire, you will eventually lose these things anyway.
You and I would end up being one of those people that would end up as slaves to be bought and sold.
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Is that true? Did they really sleep on the ropes like that?
No, it's a scene from a movie.
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I pulled up the Wikipedia article for the 4 penny coffins and found that George Orwell is one of the references for it. Thought that was interesting. Here's the page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_penny_coffin
Another great source is Henry Mayhew's "London Labour and the London Poor". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Labour_and_the_London_Poor
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Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get my cancerous scrotum looked at coughs up chimney dust
Libs: Is this Abundance
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This lead me down a rabbit hole an introduced me to "Mother's Ruin" of the cheap gin sold at the time:
It gets even more wild the more you read of that article. One guy pawning his wife for a quart of gin...then the government crackdown when things started getting even worse!
14 gallons per year? Rookie numbers! I drank more than that on a single 7-day binge!
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14 gallons per year? Rookie numbers! I drank more than that on a single 7-day binge!
That 14 gallons number raised all kinds of questions for me:
- What potency was this gin that could be consumed in this quantity but without killing so many more of its consumers?
- How can they possibly produce gin this cheap? Slave labor from the Caribbean?
- What would the logistics look like to move this much gin to a population consuming this much? This is the days before motor vehicles so everything would have had to be moved by human or horse/donkey/mule/cow pulled cart. Steam engines wouldn't arrive for another 100 years. So it was likely animal cart the number of barrels of gin must have been a river of full carts moving into the city and a river of empty ones headed out all the time.
- Public sanitation didn't really exist. Public sewer systems wouldn't arrive for another 100 years or so so the entire city must have smelled like urine all the time.
- With the sheer number of gin containers needed for this volume, did they have a "deposit" on bottles like we have sometimes today? Did they have an underground economy of people collecting empties to trade back in?
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I find that hard to believe. The ground would be more comfortable.
except, the ground is outside in the freezing london winter, during an age with draconian 'move along' laws that mean you'd be hassled by cops all night. ground would be more comfortable, that's why the coffin costs 4 pennies.
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Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get my cancerous scrotum looked at coughs up chimney dust
People don't want to work anymore, they just want to lay in wooden boxes all day.
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Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get my cancerous scrotum looked at coughs up chimney dust
nice try comrade!
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Is that true? Did they really sleep on the ropes like that?
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Not like the picture. The rope was more to stop you falling off the bench where you were sitting up asleep.
For an extra penny [than a one penny sit up] you could pay to sleep literally hanging over a rope. This was possibly marginally more comfortable, as if you fell asleep the rope would prevent you from slipping onto the floor or head-butting the bench in front of you.
https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Two-Penny-Hangover/
Edit - none of the sites mentioning it have any sources. The closest to a source I've found quickly is this passage from Dickens Pitwick Papers, which to me doesn't sound like the arrangement as described in the photo but perhaps something more akin to hammocks. Especially given the part that says "down falls the lodgers"
And pray Sam, what is the twopenny rope?’ inquired Mr. Pickwick. ‘The Twopenny rope, sir,’ replied Mr. Weller, ‘is just a cheap lodgin’ house where the beds is twopence a night!’ ‘What do they call a bed a rope for?’ said Mr. Pickwick. ‘Well the advantage o’ the plan’s obvious. At six o’clock every mornin’, they lets go the ropes at one end, and down falls all the lodgers. Consequence is that, being thoroughly waked, they get up very quickly, and walk away.’”
This site https://www.geriwalton.com/victorian-four-penny-coffins-penny-beds-homelessness/ says that the coffins were actually 2 pennies, or 4 with a meal. So why would someone sit over a rope for the same price? Again a hammock type arrangement here seems more logical to me.
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That 14 gallons number raised all kinds of questions for me:
- What potency was this gin that could be consumed in this quantity but without killing so many more of its consumers?
- How can they possibly produce gin this cheap? Slave labor from the Caribbean?
- What would the logistics look like to move this much gin to a population consuming this much? This is the days before motor vehicles so everything would have had to be moved by human or horse/donkey/mule/cow pulled cart. Steam engines wouldn't arrive for another 100 years. So it was likely animal cart the number of barrels of gin must have been a river of full carts moving into the city and a river of empty ones headed out all the time.
- Public sanitation didn't really exist. Public sewer systems wouldn't arrive for another 100 years or so so the entire city must have smelled like urine all the time.
- With the sheer number of gin containers needed for this volume, did they have a "deposit" on bottles like we have sometimes today? Did they have an underground economy of people collecting empties to trade back in?
Slave labor from the Caribbean?
You're thinking of rum on that one.
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Slave labor from the Caribbean?
You're thinking of rum on that one.
I am, you're right. Where did England's gin come from?
