ABSTRACT
With few exceptions, stemming largely from religious bans, output and trade of alcoholic beverages have ramified to all corners of the earth. Consumption of table wine, largely accounted for by the working class, is diminishing, whereas that of quality wine, principally consumed by middle and upper income groups, has risen. Legal exports of alcoholic beverages surpassed $9.4 billion in 1980, of which slightly under half was comprised of wine; two-fifths were distilled alcoholic beverages; and one-tenth was beer. Analysis focused exclusively on alcoholic beverages gives a distorted image, since they are but one major grouping of liquids which, on the surface, ‘compete’ for consumer expenditures. To view competition through the prism of corporate power, structures and strategies is even more important, inasmuch as certain corporations produce and market a wide variety of beverages. Traffic in illicit alcohol assumes different dimensions in developed countries.
