The Story of Scotch
Whisky has been a staple of Scottish culture for hundreds of years. And, to the Scottish people, whisky is more than just a drink. As literary historian David Daiches once wrote:
“The proper drinking of Scotch whisky is more than indulgence: it is a toast to civilisation, a tribute to the continuity of culture, a manifesto of man’s determination to use the resources of nature to refresh mind and body and enjoy to the full the senses with which he has been endowed.”
Even at the very beginning, there was an understanding that whisky would hold a place in culture unlike that of any other drink. The earliest record of distillation in Scotland is in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland for 1494, and in it, they call the product ‘aqua vitae’, or the ‘water of life’. In this record, a Friar John Cor received enough bolls of malt to make around 1,500 bottles on the order of the King. This would suggest that by the late 15th century, distillation was well-established in Scotland.
Where the art of distillation came from, however, is a little more unknown. Some suggest that it may have been brought over by the Beaton Medical Kindred. These were a group of physicians that had emigrated to Scotland, from Ireland, in the fourteenth century, settling in Islay in the early fifteenth century. They brought with them great skill in apothecary and natural medicine, able to tell the properties of plants based on colour, taste or smell. This was a rare feat at the time, so much so, that Neal Beaton was eventually accused of witchcraft. Claire Mackay, a medical herbalist and historian, suggests that, as the Beaton’s time of arrival in Islay and the first record of distillation are so close, it is plausible to assume that it was the skills of the Beatons that began Scotland’s love affair with the distillation process and its fruits.
The practice grew rapidly, with whisky becoming the favourite drink of King James IV of Scotland, and bringing it to the attention of the Scottish Parliament. They saw an opportunity to profit from this fledgling industry and began to introduce taxes in 1644.
This continued with the Acts of Union in 1707, where Scotland and England merged into the United Kingdom, leading to an increase in taxation. Parliament introduced a malt tax in 1725, which destroyed the mass market, private, personal production of whisky. It became almost impossible for private producers to make the whisky, and so many of the distilleries were shut down. This led to a rise in the production of illicit whisky.
For the next 150 years, smuggling became standard practice, and the whisky producers began a nation-wide game of cat-and-mouse with the taxmen. The production of whisky went underground. Scotch whisky was hidden under altars, under pulpits, in coffins, and in any available space to avoid the government’s taxmen or revenuers.
Scottish distillers, operating out of homemade stills, took to distilling whisky at night when the darkness hid the smoke from the stills. For this reason, the drink became known as moonshine.
Disaster struck again in 1757, with a massive crop failure that forced the British government to prohibit the sale of distilled spirits for three years. Private stills, however, were not prohibited, and so enterprising Scotsmen began producing underground whisky and smuggling it on a massive scale. When the ban was finally lifted, it was too late - the illicit whisky trade had grown its roots too deep for it to be removed. Although whisky was now legal, the underground distilleries had little inclination to start paying taxes.
This tension between the successful illicit distilleries and the taxmen would lead to a rise in the illegal spirit business. Whenever the taxes were raised, more distilleries would open up. So much so, that it reached the point where it was too large of a problem to manage, no matter how severe they made the punishments. The wider public began to support the smugglers, especially under the increasing weight of the hand of the British government. The Highland Clearances, the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, led to widespread resentment of the government, and a growth in support for those viewed as maintaining their freedoms of production.
The whisky would be distributed amongst the towns and villages by smugglers that became known as ‘bladdermen’. They would hide a bladder of whisky under their britches, keeping it from the watchful authorities and delivering it to their supporters. Women would be employed, hiding two-gallon ‘belly canteens’ made of sheet iron to look like pregnancy bumps under their dresses. Funerals were even co-opted for the enterprise, with phoney processions transporting whisky in the coffins or hearses. Sometimes, whisky bottles would even be hidden in dead geese!
One of the finest examples of the successful concealment of whisky was the Highland Park distillery on Orkney. They became known for hiding casks of whisky in the hollow pillars of St. Magnus Cathedral, despite the Reverend consistently reaffirming ‘thou shalt not make whisky’ in his Sunday sermons.
At one point it was estimated that Edinburgh had around 400 distilleries, of which just 11 were licensed. And, by the 1820s as many as 14,000 illicit stills were being confiscated every year, and it was estimated that over half of Scotland's whisky output was illegal.
Interestingly, one of the most well-known tax collectors of the 18th century was Robert Burns - Scotland’s great bard. He trained as an excisemen before turning to writing some of Scotland’s classic poetry. In 1785, Burns wrote "Scotch Drink" - an ode to whisky that highlights the spirit of community, cooperation, and a friendly welcome, all things he identified as the true warmth of Scotch whisky.
In 1823, the game changed. The Excise Act released that year cut the duty tax by more than 50%, presenting the underground producers with an opportunity to legitimise their businesses and grow, legally. A licensed distillery was allowed to produce as much whisky as they liked, without anyone peering over their shoulder. This led to an increase in quality, quantity and production pressure on the illicit stills.
But, a good smuggler finds other opportunities to continue their business. At the time, the duty tax was higher in England than it was in Scotland. This was a chance the, by now highly experienced underground producers couldn’t pass up. They turned their hands to smuggling whisky over the border, innovating and evolving their black market methods. They even went as far as to train dogs to swim across rivers with pig bladders full of whisky.
While the dogs were for more small-scale orders, the smuggling business grew again, with some estimates placing the volume of Scottish duty paid whisky crossing the border upward of ten-thousand gallons every week during the 1820s. Many of the smugglers would travel in armed groups, each man carrying 30 litres in metal canisters strapped to them. In most cases, the excise officers refused to approach these gangs, fearful of the violent reception they might receive.
Over the next few decades, whisky smuggling began to die out, with legal whisky dominating the market and becoming a legitimate business.
During the 19th century, whisky went global, whisky titans such as James Buchanan, Johnnie Walker and James Chivas took Scotch to the ends of the British empire. Built on these foundations, the Scotch industry thrives worldwide to this day.
Over 500 years after the beginning of whisky production, Scotch still stands as a massive proponent of the spirit industry and exists as a much loved drink the world over. It has become a staple of movies, tv shows and become synonymous with certain time periods, personality types and characters. It has transcended its form as a drink and become a part of personal, national and cultural identities. To return to the words of David Daiches:
‘it is a toast to civilisation, a tribute to the continuity of culture, a manifesto of man’s determination to use the resources of nature to refresh mind and body and enjoy to the full the senses with which he has been endowed.’
