HS Helsinki “The whole city has to be burned,” shouted a spy in the middle of Helsinki – in the 18th century it was drunk in a way that would seem absurd in modern times.

Long the voyage may dry out the mouth. This was also the case with the Lord in 1738, when a sailing ship from St. Petersburg dropped its anchor in the port of Helsinki.

The ship’s mate and three sailors had enjoyed the throat support of the contract and got up to speed: they barked at the customs inspector, made a terrible uproar, and threatened the opponents with knives.

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“Alcohol consumption among the townspeople was very common.”

From the port, four would head to the city, where meccancy continued. Let the sailors also take care of the sleigh song, the words of which were reedless.

“Raging was not uncommon in 18th-century Helsinki, as alcohol consumption was very common among the townspeople,” says a professor of Finnish history at the University of Jyväskylä. Published by H. J. Vilkuna.

“Noisy seafarers were also used to it, as half of Helsinki’s male population earned their living from maritime professions.”

Helsinki was still a small town in the 18th century: at the beginning of the century, the city was home to just over a thousand inhabitants. The population tripled by the end of the century – thanks to the construction work on Viapori, now Suomenlinna.

Drunken however, the sailor flew exceeded the tolerance of the townspeople. The men were arrested and placed in a tube awaiting trial.

The result was a fine. The mate paid his fine immediately, but the sailors could not afford it.

By court order, the ship was unable to continue its voyage until the crimes had been reconciled.

“It was allowed to be drunk in the city and keep the sound free. It was only addressed if drunkenness was perceived as a threat to the community, ”Vilkuna says.

“For the same reason, a farmer who came to the market in 1761 from the parish of Espoo to Helsinki also ended up in court. He shouted in his head that the whole city should be burned because the times are so bad. ”

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“Alcohol use was binge drinking.”

Use of alcohol was very abundant in 18th century Helsinki and in Finland as a whole. Drinking was associated with both the turning points in the lives of the residents as well as the holidays.

And when they drank, they drank properly.

“Alcohol use was binge drinking. In the 18th century, it would have been strange for alcoholic beverages to be drunk for taste, one or two glasses a day, ”Vilkuna explains.

Vilkuna has studied Finnish alcohol culture and written more than 600 pages on the subject The Kingdom of Drinkers – Finnish turn and culture 1500–1850.

Baptism, weddings and funerals were a great reason to grab a bottle. There was a lot of alcohol reserved for the party.

The child ‘s baptism was followed by children’ s beers, so the drunkenness usually lasted a day or two – sometimes longer.

The marriage was an even tougher celebration, and the large number of wedding guests was endured to an excessive extent.

After the last Proclamation required by law had been read in the church, engagement drinks began.

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“The drink was a gift, so it couldn’t be refused.”

The engagement was celebrated briskly, with drunkenness and drunkenness often just under the wedding, as many guests came to the banquet hall from a long distance and thus got to celebrate both the engagement and the wedding. Drinking could last until the priest said amen in church.

After that, they drank for days in honor of the young couple.

“In marriage, the two clans joined together with different rituals, which included dowries, gifts, and drunkenness, given half and the other way,” Vilkuna says.

“The drink was a gift, so it couldn’t be refused. That would have been an insult. ”

Funerals were generally not prepared as thoroughly, as death often came unexpectedly and the deceased had to be brought to rest quickly.

However, the commemoration of the Helsinki non-commissioned officer says something about the offers. For this purpose, 12 liters of liquor, 40 liters of beer and pipes and tobacco were reserved for the escorts.

For the party in addition, the usual place to enjoy alcohol was in a restaurant.

There were a lot of restaurants in 18th century Helsinki in relation to the population. In 1772, according to tax records, the city had as many as 33 liquor vendors and four wine restaurants for the better people.

In addition, beer was sold in taverns and in the stalls of street guests and markets.

The restaurateurs were mainly men, but permission was also given to the widows of the bourgeoisie to keep Kapaka.

“It was social care of its time. Wealthy widows would otherwise have ended up being supported by the city or parish, ”says Vilkuna.

Taxes on the sale of alcohol were a very significant source of income for Helsinki. One of the most significant sellers of alcohol was a commercial adviser Johan Sederholm (1722–1805), who attracted merchants from rural areas with alcohol and made good deals.

“It was illegal to attract peasants as customers by entertaining and accommodating. Thus, they were made their own producers and buyers by means of a debt bond. It was considered to hinder free trade, ”says Vilkuna.

“Helsinki’s oldest stone house, Sederholm House, is still largely built with alcohol.”

Upper class tasted foreign wines and liqueurs, the bourgeois took liquor and beer, and the smaller crowd was content to drink only malt.

The fine wine cellar became a way for the elite to show their status and wealth. For example, Major General Heribert Conrad Reuterskjöldin it is clear from the potato writing that he had 177 bottles of wine at his post in Helsinki.

This was, of course, a modest collection compared to the basement of his home manor near Turku, where there were as many as 441 bottles of wine.

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“The elite did not want stubbornness and rock days in the hangover.”

The elite drank and rumbled in the same way as the lower estates, but did so in their own circle and out of the sight of the people. However, the upper class wanted to control and manage the alcohol consumption of the lower population.

“It was primarily a matter of discipline and finances. The elite did not want the stubborn servants of the hangover and the rock days, ”Vilkuna summarizes.

Lower legislation sought to address alcohol consumption among the population. Indeed, the drunkenness ordinances of 1733 recorded harsh punishments for those who drunk in public.

The law was enforced in Helsinki and other cities by law enforcement patrols and fire guards, who were also on duty on the streets at night.

“When someone got caught, the degree of drunkenness was determined by justice. The case was clear if the accused was so-called overloaded, i.e. unable to walk on his own two feet. Even then, some claimed to have had a seizure, ”says Vilkuna.

“The convictions came mainly from the lower population. Because the elite oversaw the law, it did not condemn members of its own group. ”

Official controls was taken to the extreme between 1772 and 1775, when the sale and manufacture of alcohol was completely banned in the Kingdom of Sweden. However, this ban was not bleached by the people of Helsinki.

“Smuggling became more common. It was handled above all by coalitions of soldiers, sailors and workers, ”says Vilkuna.

In Helsinki, these gangs beat customs officers, drove liquor cargoes through customs gates and rushed alcohol from Russian ships.

It is no wonder that the mayors of Helsinki decided in the early 19th century to ban folk dances, which caused disorder, unmarried children and other unintended consequences.

“Naturally, the ban on elite dances did not apply. They were great and valuable opportunities. ”

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“Women drunk secretly at home.”

Drinking was above all a matter for men. When the men gathered at the market, for a party, or even to visit a neighbor next door, the bottles circled the crowd.

Women’s public intoxication, on the other hand, was seen as a disgrace to family and community.

“But yes, women also drank secretly at home. When alcohol began to be recorded as the cause of death in the early 19th century, women who died in liquor were overrepresented in number, ”says Vilkuna.

Excessive alcohol consumption caused health problems and premature deaths, but as far back as the 18th century, death was usually referred to as a “seizure,” or “edema,” suggesting liver disease.

“Yes, the health dangers of alcohol were already known at the time. For example, a Swedish scientist Carl von Linné wondered at the end of the 18th century the general way to silence a crying child by drinking alcohol. ”

Drunkenness caused not only health problems but also violence on both the streets and inside the walls of the home.

In the fall of 1794, a group of Viapori officers and a garrison battalion had gathered in a captain’s apartment. Suddenly there was a commotion and a bang from the upstairs apartment.

The garrison commandant went upstairs to find out. He met from the apartment in the senseless drunkenness of Viapori’s priest. His wife’s husband had been beaten and sat on this one.

When the commandant told the priest to behave properly, he replied that he was allowed to do what he wanted in his apartment. The commandant then sent the pastor into the chamber and put the soldier on guard at the door so that the priest in his madness would jump out the window.

The court-martial eventually sentenced the pastor.

“Judgment was rare, because according to the law, a man had the right to hand over his wife or servants as long as he did so reasonably,” Vilkuna says.

The priest did not learn from the verdict: two years later he was suspected of the same acts.

However, the pastor took over and died in the middle of a criminal investigation.

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