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This article examines how the 100-year-old Danish alcohol licence system has balanced the social and health consequences of alcohol consumption with the freedom to run a business. When the rest of the Nordic countries first introduced a monopoly on the retail sale of alcohol, Denmark chose not to have a monopoly, but rather focused on combining a licensing requirement with the high taxation on alcohol. In the early 20th century, the Templar movement and the publican’s organisation represented the divergent interests of social and health consequences vs. the idea of free-trade respectively. In the middle to latter part of the century, these interests are represented by the state and the publican’s organisations. The method used is a sociological analysis of the genesis of alcohol-related legislation. The material analysed includes laws and official legal documents pertaining to the preparation of the laws. The article shows how pressure to liberalise the selling of alcohol from public houses grew throughout the twentieth century, ultimately undermining the intended restrictions and also normalising the selling of alcohol.

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