Ivan Bratt: the man who saved Sweden from prohibition

For forty years, until 1955, spirits were rationed in Sweden under a system of individual control. Local "System companies" had a monopoly on the retail trade in spirits and wine. Private profits on alcohol were also eliminated in the restaurants and the wholesale trade. Legislation was based on the proposals put forward by the physician Ivan Bratt (1878-1956), who presented his ideas in 1909 as an alternative to prohibition. Bratt had the support of leading personalities in Swedish medicine, newspapers and politics, and he also enlisted the support of some of the leaders of the powerful temperance movement. In 1922, Swedes voted against prohibition in a referendum by 51% to 49%. The Bratt system substantially reduced alcohol abuse. When it was abolished, drunkenness in the streets doubled. By 1960, when high taxes had replaced rationing as the policy for controlling the consumption of alcohol, delirium tremens had increased since the Bratt period from 160 cases a year to 700 cases a year.