ABSTRACT
Inns, taverns, alehouses and punch houses all provided meals and, under the Statute of Victuals, they should have been regulated by the clerk of the market whose responsibility it was to ensure that victuals for men and horses were sold at reasonable prices. Most of the spirit retailers sold some form of gin, but there was also a wider choice of British and imported spirits on sale in inns, taverns, up-market alehouses, coffee houses and punch houses, where customers could afford higher prices. Legally, like alehouses and inns, taverns were forbidden to sell meat at prohibited times, or to allow tippling, but as regards licensing and orderly conduct taverns remained largely outside the responsibility of the justices. French wines were either subjected to prohibitively high duties or actual prohibition; both circumstances led to a drastic shortage of French wines and brandy on sale in English inns and taverns.
