Liquor Licenses, Moral Character, and a Ten-Dollar Limit

Mamie Jones wrote that between 1817 and 1862 there was no tax on spirituous liquors sold in bulk. Records of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions for Cleveland County show that in 1841 the license tax for liquor retailers was $4.00 per year. The law required that anyone licensed to retail liquor be a man of good moral character and that he operate under the supervision of the County Court.

The law also placed a strict limit on liquor credit. A retailer could not collect by law any liquor debt that exceeded $10.00, no matter how much a customer owed him.

Source: Mamie Jones.