Long before colonization began in the New World, alcohol had played a significant role in people's lives. Not only was it customary to drink regularly and daily, but alcohol was generally considered part of God's creation, therefore "intrinsically good". The colonies laid the foundation for the American legacy of alcohol consumption that was to be completely moderate. Moderation was not simply proclaimed religiously, but was considered an efficient task and related to economic stability. Although drunkenness was not necessarily stigmatized, over the years government officials began to address alcohol abuse as a recurring and threatening social problem. This became even more evident as industrialization changed the input of work environments, the latter increasingly relying on technological processes and people's ability to coordinate them. Furthermore, due to technological developments, alcohol production has increased and so has consumption due to availability and accessibility. In just thirteen years, between 1900 and 1913, the production of beer alone increased from 4.6 billion to 7.6 billion litres. Gradually, “drunkenness came to be defined as a threat to industrial efficiency and growth.” Various laws were therefore passed as early as 1697 to officially establish control over alcohol consumption. It was therefore because of the increase in morally despised alcohol abuse that state officials were motivated to enact laws along these lines. And it was also due to growing concerns about people's health and work abilities that the promulgations occurred frequently. Laws relating to alcohol prohibition were the means by which the government sought to achieve specific... half of document......d J. "National Alcohol Prohibition in the United States" Accessed November 16, 2013 . http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/1091124904.html#.UodkItLxrR8.Murdock, Gilbert, Catherine. Taming Drink: Women, Men, and Alcohol in America, 1870-1940. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.Powers, Madelon. “Decay from Within: The Inevitable Downfall of the American Saloon.” In Drinking: Behavior and Belief in Modern History, edited by Susanna Barrows and Robin Room, 112-164. Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford: University of California Press, 1991. Slavicek, Louise, Chipley. The Prohibition Era: Temperance in the United States. New York, NY: Infobase Publishing, 2009.Vance, Robert, Patrick. "The End of Prohibition." The Concord Review, Inc. 12 (2001): 97-116. Accessed November 16, 2013.http://www.tcr.org/tcr/essays/EPrize_Prohibition.pdf.