“And his Majesty doth further hereby declare, that if any person or persons shall take upon them, him or her, after his, her or their License or Licenses recalled, or otherwise without License, to sell by retail (as aforesaid) any of the Liquors aforesaid, that then the person or persons so Offending, shall not only be proceeded against, upon the Statute made in the Fifteenth year of his Majesties
Reign (which gives the forfeiture of five pounds for every moneth wherein he, she or they shall offend therein) but shall (in case they persevere to Offend) receive the severest punishments that may by Law be inflicted.”
This was a message from King Charles II to the people of England that they were no longer allowed to have coffee houses. He also placed a ban on the selling of coffee Sherbet and Tea. Charles said that coffee houses we’re offensive to the law and that they were disturbing the peace but the real reason why he didn’t want coffee houses was because he believed that these places promoted rebellion. The punishment for the selling of these items was five pounds for every moneth (month) that they sell it and if they continued to do it they were to receive “the severest of punishments that may by law be inflicted”. This shows how seriously King Charles took this. In the article it notes that it was supposed to take place on January 10 1675 but the king was pressured by his own ministers to withdraw the proclamation because they themselves loved their coffee.
I also thought the king’s decision to ban coffee houses and the selling of coffee was because he thought coffee houses caused rebellion. In addition, the proclamation also stated that coffee “produced very evil and dangerous effects”, which means that the King thought drinking coffee will cause a person to have bad thoughts or cause a person to do illegal things. This adds to the King’s law to ban coffee houses or coffee in general.