Greetings from North Idaho! Somehow my work on the history of alcohol in the U.S. has led me once again to Virginia (see, e.g., this <http://www.roizen.com/ron/dissch6.htm> ). This time my focus is on the production of ardent spirits by distilleries in your state (ahem, commonwealth) in 1790. The short version of the reasons behind my interest follows. In 1793, Tench Coxe provided Alexander Hamilton and Congress with a table showing the results of Hamilton's "Whiskey Tax's" first year of operation, for a period of 12 months or so following July 1, 1791. (Thanks to the wonderful online resources of the Library of Congress, the two pages of Coxe's table are available here <http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsp&fileName=009/llsp009.db&re cNum=254> and here <http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsp&fileName=009/llsp009.db&re cNum=255> .) Virginia, the most populous state in the union in 1790, reported a quite small gallonage of spirits produced from foreign materials (i.e., usually molasses, for rum) and an even smaller gallonage of spirits produced from domestic materials (i.e., usually corn or something else, for whiskey): namely, 9,687 gallons and 440.5 gallons, respectively. A longish footnote explained that the supervisor for collections in Virginia (one Edw'd Carrington) was having difficulty getting going on the collections process. An estimated $22,234 in gross revenue from Virginia distillers (also reported in the table) might suggest an associated production of about 200,000 gallons -- still not very much for a state Virginia's size. Total U.S. domestic production in this first year of the tax's operation (according to Coxe's table) was reported at about 5,150,000 gallons - thus making Virginia's 200,000-gallon figure equivalent to about 4 percent of national domestic production (this, for a state comprising perhaps 20 percent of the U.S. population in 1790). Given the amount of evasion associated with Hamilton's tax, the true figure for U.S. domestic production was probably substantially higher. Now, I'm the first to admit that the collection of this tax and the estimation of its associated production gallonages are hedged about with all sorts of difficulties. For one thing, very small distilling operations producing just enough for household consumption and small local markets for any excess probably defined the Virginia situation. These would have represented considerable difficulties for tax collectors. One <http://www.discus.org/heritage/distillery_faq.asp> web site I've seen suggests that the average Virginia distillery at this time produced about 650 gallons per year. So, and without further ado, my question is this: Might anyone on this list be able to direct me to sources on the number and associated production gallonages of distilling in Virginia in 1790? I'd be most grateful for any new sources or ideas this list's members may suggest. With thanks, Ron Ron Roizen Wallace, Idaho Some <http://www.roizen.com/ron/index.htm> Explorations in the Sociology of Alcohol ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html