Revenue from Alcoholic Beverages 1898-99

With my freshly-broken arm, I'm keeping thins simple. Not too much typing or computer work. Because, er, it fucking hurts.

Today, we've a quick look at how important taxation on alcohol was in various countries. It comes as absolutely no surprise that the UK was the most dependent on alcohol taxation. Which accounted for more than a third of tax revenue. That was a typical number for most of the 19th century.

In France and Germany, it was only around half of that. I wonder where they were getting all their tax from?

The only country in the table that comes anywhere close to the UK is the USA. Which makes Prohibition, which came along a couple of decades later, seem quite problematic. I'm sure any country would struggle with more than a quarter of tax revenue suddenly disappearing. That's one of the reasons banning alcohol was never really on the cards in the UK. Where would the tax have come from?

I was a bit surprised that France's total revenue was higher than the UK's. Was that simply down to a larger population? 

Revenue from Alcoholic Beverages 1898-99
Country	Year	Total Revenue	Alcohol Revenue	% from alcohol
United Kingdom	1898-9	£94,301,000	£34,400,000	36%
France	1898	£116,448,000	£22,051,000	19%
Germany	1897-8	£72,171,000	£12,884,000	18%
United States	1897-8	£102,986,000	£28,710,000	28%
Australian Colonies	1898	£29,142,000	£2,965,000	10.20%
Canada	1898	$40,555,000	$6,940,000	17.10%
Source:
The Brewers' Journal vol. 36 1900, February 15th 1900, page 205.