ABSTRACT
The consumption of drink has been subject to regulation for centuries. The result has been a regulatory regime, also generally known as the licensing, or liquor licensing, system, of great complexity. The modern licensing system is generally viewed as dating from the mid sixteenth century. But there were many precedents for later regulation from the Anglo-Saxon period and through the medieval. The revenue derived from fines under the assize of ale may be said to have constituted a de facto licensing system. The restrictive licensing system of the later nineteenth century and the war years persisted for almost a further half century. The licensing system, including minor changes made in the inter-war and immediate post-war years, was the subject of a consolidating statute in 1953, the year following a comprehensive Customs and Excise Act, which had brought together and simplified 150 years of legislation.
