With health-conscious young people drinking less than ever before, it’s interesting to look back to an earlier century when Canadians consumed more liquor — a lot more, in fact.
According to my estimates, the average consumption of spirits in the 1700s was about 15 times higher than today’s figures. Between the 1720s and the 1830s, the colonies that would later become Canada were awash in rum.
As I explain in my recent book, Canada in the Age of Rum, the spirit became deeply embedded in the economic life of early Canada.
