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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 13, 2020 17:46:30 GMT
yeah maybe it "shifts" throughout the cities
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,756
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Oct 7, 2021 12:15:29 GMT
Smuggling the sweet white powder.
Take a somewhat imaginary scene in Switzerland at the turn of the twentieth century; someone is strapping kilos of white powder in small packages to his body, preparatory to crossing the border. The alpine nation famed for it's clocks and chocolate is the international hub for trade in this illegal substance. But it’s not heroin or cocaine (both legal at the time) but what's now known as E954: the sweetener saccharin.
In 1913 a novel was written (Der Saccharinschmuggler [The Saccharin Smuggler] by Eduard Ehrensperger-Gerig) portraying the demonic powder (and i's lucrative smuggling)as the new threat to society and all that was good and decent. The novel has a formerly respectable businessman, frustrated and impoverished by his business failures, carrying fifteen kilos of the white powder in packets strapped to his body across the border. In Prague, after sailing through customs, he gets on with the lucrative business. However he's soon turned into a liar and a villain and gradually tumbles down an abyss of corruption, malice, barbarism and animalistic brutality. Fascinating. Anyone for some 'Sweet'n Lo'?
The trade was bizarrely lucrative; coffins and candles, oranges and underwear were used to conceal the terrible menace. Of course the restrictions (duties, bans and prescription) in many countries were far more about protecting local sugar production interests than reality. Germany (where it had been invented) required a medical prescription1 for saccharin (unlike heroin, morphine or cocaine) and created "sweetener squads" to hunt down dealers. The Swiss and Dutch didn't tax or ban the stuff, hence they led the illegal trade, especially Switzerland which was the main producer. In fact the 1902 annual report of the pharmaceutical company Sandoz stated that saccharin’s prohibition abroad created "favourable perspectives" for Basel (where they were based). In 1906 saccharin was responsible for about one-third of the total value of Swiss exports.
Alas for the lucrative smuggling trade the shortages of the Great War pretty much ended the illegal trade due to the removal of restrictions on saccharin. Why was it banned or restricted? There was some spurious evidence of carcinogenic effects (disproved), the fallacious naturalistic believe in "natural foods" and the fact that sugar taxes were a lucrative source of revenue.
Game use: An odd one. The players might find their sweetener tabs confiscated, encounter a smuggling operation or find that a local producer of the substance is adulterating with something unworldly.
1. It was believed to alleviate headaches, nausea, and corpulence. While it can reduce obesity, having zero calorific value, it's not much use for other conditions.
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