The Bratt System was a system that was used in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

(1919–1955) and similarly in

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(1944–1970) to control

alcohol Alcohol may refer to: Common uses * Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds * Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life ** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages ** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...

consumption, by

rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution (marketing), distribution of scarcity, scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resourc ...

of liquor. Every citizen allowed to consume alcohol was given a booklet called a motbok (viinakortti in Finland), in which a stamp was added each time a purchase was made at

Systembolaget (, "the System Company"), colloquially known as ("the system") or ("the company"), is a government-owned chain of liquor stores in Sweden. It is the only retail store allowed to sell alcoholic beverages that contain more than 3.5% alcohol by ...

(in Sweden) and Alko (in Finland). A somewhat similar system called tšekisüsteem also existed in

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between July 1, 1920 and December 31, 1925 (the difference being that unlike in Sweden and Finland, there never was any centralised

alcohol monopoly An alcohol monopoly is a government monopoly on manufacturing and/or retailing of some or all alcoholic beverages, such as beer, wine and spirits. It can be used as an alternative for total prohibition of alcohol. They exist in all Nordic co ...

retailer or producer; the sale of alcoholic beverages in said country was mainly delegated to the country's municipalities). The stamps were based on the amount of alcohol bought. When a certain amount of alcohol had been bought, the owner of the booklet had to wait until next month to buy more. The rations were gradually changed, but were issued in greater quantities to men (due to the lesser effects incurred on a male of equal or lesser weight) and citizens of titles and professions associated with a higher social standing.Motboken blev en klasstämpel
/ref> Citizens made frequent use of friends' or even strangers' booklets, for example by rewarding a young woman with a dinner out in return for the other party consuming most or all of the alcohol incurring the stamps. Wine was exempt from rationing, as it was then believed to be less dangerous, with little or no correlation to alcohol-related abuse or violence. Named after

medical doctor A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis ...

and liberal politician , the Bratt system, involving the motbok/viinakortti, was made permanent in 1922 after a referendum on a total ban on alcohol had been held. In said referendum, a narrow 51% had voted no to banning alcohol sales. Its primary purpose was to decrease the consumption of alcohol. While a motbok owner could buy almost unlimited amounts of wine, spirits were highly restricted. Finnish-Swedish author discussed the Swedish Bratt System in her work ''Brattsystemet i Sverige'' (1931). As of December 31, 1948, the average purchase amount allowed per motbok per month was 1.82 litres of spirits.

Gallery

File:1952 Bratt system motbok from Gothenburg Sweden.jpg, Motbok from

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, Sweden (1952). File:Motbok1.jpg, "Motbok" - Åmål systembolag (1920). Section 1 File:Motbok2.jpg, "Motbok" - Åmål systembolag (1920). Section 2 File:DA-2015-088692-SYS000452 Stämpel sista dan.jpg, Stamping a "motbok" (with alcohol purchases shown on left) in 1955 File:Motbok 009.jpg, A collection of Systembolaget stamps in the "motbok" for permitted quotas (click on the image for full description)

Sources

Nationalencyklopedin (; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish-language encyclopedia with several hundred thousand articles. It is available both online and via a printed version. History The project was ...

, 2007

Gallery

Sources

See also