Note 216 — Chapter III
Henry P. (Henry Pomeroy) Horton translation
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the abuse of alcohol had reached a high degree of development among the rich. The cause of this was the birth of capitalism, by which great wealth was accumulated in the hands of a few without their having occasion to place a great part of it as new capital. To this fact was joined a low degree of culture, and it thus came about that the wealthy of the period spent enormous sums for eating and drinking.216