15. The Innovations That Led to a Mushrooming in the Numbers of Saloons
Beer has a short shelf life, so throughout most of history, it did not make much economic to brew more beer than could be consumed locally. If you tried to transport it to distant markets, beer would spoil before it got there. Progress changed that. By the second half of the nineteenth century, pasteurization had increased beer’s shelf life, and between that, efficient refrigeration, and an expanding rail network, brewers were able to operate nationwide. However, in order to operate across the country, brewers needed a nationwide distribution network.
So they created one with a system of saloon subsidies. By the early 1900s, a saloon operator who agreed to sell only one brand of beer was guaranteed support from the brewer. Brewers advanced prospective saloon keepers cash, loans, credit for furniture, and whatever else was needed to get the establishment up and running and quenching the public’s thirst for beer. As a contemporary put it: “No man with two hundred dollars, who was not subject to arrest on sight, need go without a saloon in Chicago“.
