Beginning in 1897 the French state monopolized the production and sale of rice liquor in Indochina. The result was one of the colonial era’s defining institutions, with French-owned factories churning out tasteless ethanol and the state’s largest civilian branch, the Department of Customs and Monopolies, using draconian means to encourage consumption and stamp out illegal competition. The monopoly not only failed to generate appreciable net revenue for the state, but also it placed millions of Indochinese in a stance of resistance to its rule as they continued to make and drink liquor as they ... More

Beginning in 1897 the French state monopolized the production and sale of rice liquor in Indochina. The result was one of the colonial era’s defining institutions, with French-owned factories churning out tasteless ethanol and the state’s largest civilian branch, the Department of Customs and Monopolies, using draconian means to encourage consumption and stamp out illegal competition. The monopoly not only failed to generate appreciable net revenue for the state, but also it placed millions of Indochinese in a stance of resistance to its rule as they continued to make and drink liquor as they had for generations. The monopoly was the product of advances in microbiology, the consolidation of the distilling industry, and the growth of the fiscal state worldwide. Yet it was also shaped by Indochina’s unique geographies, histories, and personalities. By exploring alcohol’s central role in the making of colonial Indochina, Imperial Intoxication illuminates the contradictory mix of modern and archaic, power and impotence, civil bureaucracy and military occupation that characterized colonial rule. It highlights the role Indochinese played in shaping the monopoly, whether as illegal distillers or the agents sent to arrest them. And it links long-ago stories of rebellion to global processes that continue to play out today.