Early Consumer Protection Legislation: a 17th Century Law Prohibiting Lead Adulteration of Wines

Abstract

The practice of doctoring wines with lead additives in order to sweeten and preserve them was widespread in Europe from Roman times on and was responsible for numerous epidemics. However, it was not until the 17th century that it was recognised that a common and frequently fatal disease, known as the colic of Poitou and by many other names, was caused by the consumption of leaded wines. The correct aetiology of the disease was discovered by Eberhard Gockel, city physician of Ulm, which city was at the time the centre of the German wine trade. The local colic outbreaks of the 1690s and Gockel's findings had resulted in serious economic losses to Ulm, and in response to this crisis Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Württemberg issued, in 1693, a strict edict against adulterating wines with lead. This law, which is here presented in facsimile and translation, is an early example of consumer protection legislation. Apart from attempting to control the distribution of litharge (lead acetate), the edict requires that witnesses report offenders to the authorities on pain of equal culpability ('whistle blowing') and prescribes the death penalty for convicted perpetrators.