Drink by Jane Peyton

Author:Jane Peyton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Summersdale Publisher

Brandy was not just something to drink; it was a handy preservative, antiseptic, and painkiller so it became an invaluable commodity on ships. By the mid-seventeenth century the Netherlands was the world’s greatest maritime trading nation so the reputation of brandewijn spread far. In the eighteenth century African slavers began to accept brandy as currency and it soon became such a mark of distinction that slavers preferred it over guns and baubles. Some would accept nothing else as payment for the human cargo they were selling for export to the New World. When in the 1650s the Dutch East Indies trading company set up a settlement on the Cape of Good Hope to resupply ships going to and from Europe and the Indies, one of the first actions was to plant vines and as soon as wine was produced in the Cape Colony, distilling followed with a harsh spirit nicknamed witblits, or white lightning.

Until the mid-nineteenth century in some Western countries a practice called heroic medicine cures was common as a treatment for certain ailments. This entailed patients drinking great amounts of alcohol. Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, was prescribed six pints of brandy a day to cure him of typhoid. He died.

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