Seventy-five years since the end of Prohibition in Finland

Alko marks anniversary with new flagship store in Helsinki

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Today, April 5th, is the 75th anniversary of a significant day in the lives of any Finns old enough to have been living in the 1930s.
      On 5.4.[19]32, at 10:00 (and yes, the "count-down" timing was allegedly deliberate), nearly thirteen years of total prohibition on the production and sale of alcohol came to an end, and the doors of state-owned Alko liquor stores were opened in towns and cities up and down the country.
      At the end of the previous year, more than 70% of those who took part in a referendum on the subject had voted to end the experiment, which began in June 1919.
      Prohibition was by no means a purely Finnish phenomenon: it was famously enforced in the United States, of course, and in Iceland from 1915 to 1922 (with beer prohibited until as recently as 1989), and in Norway from 1916 to 1927.
     
In addition to the obvious annoyance felt by drinkers, and the ills of smuggling, illicit stills (often producing dangerously powerful and even toxic products), and the widespread disrespect for law and order in general that came with prohibition, economic historians such as Jorma Kallenautio have suggested that Finland's finances were feeling the adverse effects of enforced temperance by the early 1930s.
      Prohibition was not smiled upon by Finland's trading partners. Several Southern European countries - for instance Portugal, Spain, Italy, and most significantly France - expressed their displeasure at the closed market for their wines and spirits, and threatened to introduce tariff-barriers on timber and paper exports from Finland.
      This threat, which had also been felt by Norway (where it was exports of fish that were hit), had surfaced already in the early 1920s, but it became more acute around 1930 when the global depression began seriously to hurt the Finnish economy, and there was an urgent need for the tax revenue that alcohol sales would bring.
      Interestingly, by 1931, many of the earlier problems with the illegal import and sale of alcohol had been brought more under control, a point that only accentuates the "fiscal" side of the decision to abolish prohibition.
     
The anniversary is not being formally celebrated to any great extent, but it is certainly no coincidence that a specialist Alko outlet - effectively the company's flagship store - re-opens today [Thursday] on Salomonkatu in Helsinki. Renovation work has been carried out on the premises for the past three months.
      The store has a broader selection - around 2,600 individual titles - than the 500-2,000 carried in other Alko off-licences, and includes several hundred sale-to-order beers, wines, and spirits that are not in the standard assortment.
     
It is unlikely that there will be similar scenes on Thursday to those 75 years ago, when lines started forming in the early hours of the morning.
      It is even more unlikely - given the continued strict nature of Finnish alcohol policy, notwithstanding the reductions in taxation on spirits introduced in 2004 - that there will be any "opening day discounts" on offer at the new Alko.
      Such things are only the stuff of April Fools' Day hoaxes. Remarkably successful ones.
     
It should also be noted that owing to the Easter holiday weekend, the Alko liquor stores will NOT be open on Friday, Saturday, or next Monday. Thursday opening hours are as normal.
     
Our weeklies next week (published exceptionally on Wednesday April 11th) will contain an article on a new book detailing the 75 years of Alko, which came into being with the end of Prohibition.


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