Gothenburg

GOTHENBURG (Swed. Goteborg), a seaport of Sweden, on the river Gota, 5 m. above its mouth in the Cattegat, 285 m.

S.W. of Stockholm by rail, and 36o by the Gota canal-route. Pop.

252,721. Founded by Gustavus Adolphus in 1619, Gothen burg was from the first designed to be fortified, a town of the same name, founded on Hisingen, in 1603, having been destroyed by the Danes during the Calmar war. The great development of its herring fishery in the latter part of the i8th century gave a new impulse to the city's trade, which was kept up by the in fluence of the "Continental Sys tem," under which Gothenburg became a depot for the colonial merchandise of England. In 1807 its walls were demolished. Its closer connection with the interior of the country by the Gota canal (opened 1832) and Western rail way rapidly advanced both its population and trade.

The inner city is contained al most entirely between the river and the Rosenlunds canal, con tinued in the Vallgraf, the moat of the old fortifications; and is crossed by canals. The old East India Company's house is now a museum and art gallery. Gustaf Adolfs-Torg is the business centre, and contains the town-hall (167o). Among several churches in this quarter of the city is the cathedral (Gustavii Domkyrka), of 1633, rebuilt after fires in 1742 and 1815. At the west end of Vasa Street is the city library, the most important in the country except the royal library at Stockholm and the university libraries at Upsala and Lund. The university (Hogskola) was a private foundation (1891), but is governed by a board, the members of which are nominated by the state, the town council, Royal Society of Science and Litera ture and others. The navigation school was rebuilt in 1916 and a marine museum was opened in 1913. The principal railway lines run to Trollhattan, and into Norway (Oslo) ; Stockholm, Falun and the north; Boras and beyond, and Helsingborg, etc.

Gothenburg is the first port in Sweden and the chief centre of the shipbuilding industry. The harbour has been enlarged and was made a free port in 1922. Its principal industrial establish ments are mechanical works, saw-mills, dealing with the timber which is brought down the Gota, flour-mills, margarine factories, breweries and distilleries, tobacco works, cotton mills, dyeing and bleaching works (at Levanten in the vicinity), furniture factories, paper and leather works. In 1927 the ships registered numbered 289, with a gross-tonnage of 520,624. Gothenburg is the principal port of embarkation of Swedish emigrants for America.

"GOTHENBURG" LICENSING SYSTEM.

The distinc tive and basic principle of this system is the elimination of private profit interest in the sale of spirituous liquors. The system takes its name from Gothenburg, the second largest city and principal seaport of Sweden, where the system was first established on a statutory basis. The Swedish Licensing Law of 1855, which re organized and greatly extended drink control, gave to urban mu nicipalities the right to transfer the whole of the retail spirit licences (on and off) in their areas to a specially constituted "bolag" (controlling company), subject to the condition that the whole of the profits (after payment of the current rate of interest on the capital subscribed) should be devoted to public purposes. The precise use of the profits was not prescribed. This optional right was destined in a comparatively short time to revolutionize licensing in Sweden, Norway and Finland, and later to have a powerful effect upon licensing policy generally.

In 1865 the Gothenburg municipal authorities decided to hand over to the control of a company the whole of the "on" spirit licences in the city as and when they expired. The licences were granted to the company for the usual period of three years. The retail "off" trade in spirits, which in Sweden is kept entirely dis tinct from the "on" trade and is carried on in separate premises under a different licence, was not transferred to the company until 1874. The company began its operations on Oct. I, 1865, with 20 "on" licences. Three years later the whole of the 61 "on" spirit licences in the city were granted to the company. Twenty-seven of these were used by the company itself ; nine others were sub-leased to hotels, restaurants and clubs ; seven were exchanged for "off" licences, and the remainder (i8) although charged with "sales" (licence) tax, were not used. This policy of voluntary non-use of licences (which in effect is a policy of licence reduction) has been characteristic of the Gothenburg system throughout. Despite a great increase in the population (from 6o,000 in 1874 to 227,000 in 1926), the total number of retail spirit licences ("on" and "off") in Gothenburg fell from 81 in 18i4 to 66 in 1926, of which five are not used. Wine and beer were not included in the company's monopoly, and the sale of beer in Sweden is still outside the control of the system; but since 1919 wine has been brought under monopoly control.

Discouragement of Drinking.

The chief features of the Gothenburg system, apart from restriction and reduction of licences, have been the encouragement of the sale of food with drink ; restriction of the amount of spirits sold, restriction of the hours of sale, and improvement of the premises and service. While the companies are subject to the ordinary licensing statutes, and are also subject to close supervision by local and central authorities, they have had from the first considerable liberty of experimental action which has led to great improvements both in the scheme of control and in national law. The Gothenburg corn pany, for example, was able in its early years voluntarily to raise the age-limit at which young persons could be served with spirits from 15 (the then legal age) to 18; to reduce the alco holic strength of the spirits sold ; to provide eating-houses for working-men in which the purchase of spirits, although permitted (under compulsion of the law as it then stood), was not encour aged, and ultimately, in advance of the law, to make the separate purchase of food of a specified value a necessary condition of the purchase of spirits.

The Gothenburg company was not an exception in this respect. Other companies, as the system spread, made valuable experiments in various directions, and, step by step, national law responded to the experience gained. The "Bratt" system itself, the most re markable development of the early Gothenburg system, originated in this wisely granted liberty of experimental action. In Sweden the dram-shop as it formerly existed has completely disappeared. Its place has been taken by what are really refreshment rooms and restaurants of a popular and excellent kind, in which the pur chase of spirits is compulsorily associated with the purchase of food. The effect of the system as it has been progressively de veloped upon spirit sales has been marked.

The "Gothenburg" system (now usually referred to as the "Bratt" system, in acknowledgment of the great contribution to its development made by Dr. Ivan Bratt), as it exists today, is greatly different in scope and character from the original form of the system. Control has been centralized and improved, and the application of the basic principle of the system has been ex tended. It is no longer an optional system but obligatory in all areas where spirit (and wine) licences are granted. The profits of the controlling companies, which formerly were assigned to the municipal treasury and to certain county and provincial funds, now go to the State. The sub-leasing of licences to private traders (a necessary arrangement at first) has been wholly abolished in the case of "off" sale licences, but is still permitted, under strin gent regulations, in the case of hotels, restaurants and clubs.

The Mot-Bok System.

The most striking development of the system in recent years is, however, the introduction, and subse quent statutory enforcement, of the mot-bok (pass-book) method of regulating "off" sales of spirits. (which represent 90% of the total spirit sales in Sweden), under what is known as the "Bratt" system. These mot-boks are granted only to adults of a specified age which can be, and in fact often is, raised at the option of the control authority in each district ; and spirits can only be pur chased for "off" consumption (subject to a maximum quantity limit per month) on production of the mot-bok. Mot-boks are valid for use only by the actual owner.

The mot-bok method of sale was suggested and introduced by Dr. Ivan Bratt, a Stockholm physician, the chairman and creator of the Vin ocli Sprit Centralen, a semi-State monopoly (with a restricted share interest) which controls the entire wholesale trade in wine and spirits (including importation and manufacture) in Sweden. In 1913 he successfully applied the mot-bok method of "off" sale to the Stockholm scheme of "bolag" management, of which he is also the head. The new method made a wide appeal. It was adopted in town after town, and in 1915 was standardized by statute and made obligatory for all "off" sale of spirits in Sweden as from Jan. 1, 1916. It may be premature to speak of its permanent effect, but it is noteworthy that since 1913, when the mot-bok method was first introduced, the national consumption of spirits in Sweden (a spirit drinking country) has fallen from 44,500,000 litres to 30,497,00o in 1927, or from eight litres to five litres per head of the population. Convictions for drunken ness in the same period have declined one-half. In Stockholm, the principal city (pop. 450,00o), the reduction in both cases has been much greater. (See TEMPERANCE ; LOCAL, OPTION ; PROHI BITION ; DISINTERESTED MANAGEMENT.) (A. SH.)