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August 7, 2013

The Lost World of the London Coffeehouse

earliest_known_image_of_a_coffeehouse_dated_to_1674.jpg
The earliest known image of a coffeehouse dated to 1674

Until the mid-seventeenth century, most people in England were either slightly — or very — drunk all of the time.
Drink London’s fetid river water at your own peril; most people wisely favoured watered-down ale or beer (“small beer”). The arrival of coffee, then, triggered a dawn of sobriety that laid the foundations for truly spectacular economic growth in the decades that followed as people thought clearly for the first time. | The Public Domain Review

Posted by gerardvanderleun at August 7, 2013 10:37 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

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