It seems that all the colonists had conceived the idea that it would be very easy to make their new home a wine-country, and it was but natural that the German settlers, by far the greater number of whom came from the Palatinate and the Rhine provinces famed for their wines, should have thought so. The seal of Germantown bears a bunch of grapes, among other symbolical devices, and the inscription _Vinum, Linum et Textrinum_; but although the city became famous for its linen, its wine never amounted to much. Here, however, as in Philadelphia and all succeeding settlements, brewing prospered for a while. When Penn assumed control of his colony, he probably found but a single tavern within his domain, _i.e._, _The Blue Anchor_, located at what is now known as Dock Street. The records show that with increasing population the number of taverns also increased, and early laws and regulations seem to indicate an excess of supply over demand. A law enacted in 1699 authorized the governor to license taverns and suppress disorderly houses. Subsequently, other regulations, conceived in a spirit of paternalism, aimed at the fixing of prices and of the quality and quantity of food and drink to be served at taverns. From these regulations it appears plainly that beer was considered a regular and indispensable part of every meal, and this fact explains why brewing flourished in the early part of the colony’s history. Not all beers, however, were of the kind referred to before. Neither domestic malt nor hops could be procured in sufficient quantities to supply so large a demand and as a consequence the colonists fell back upon the manufacture of what might be styled a new kind of mead. We have it on the assurance of Penn himself that “molasses when well boiled with sassafras or pine infused into it” makes a very tolerable drink. Beer-drinkers probably preferred hops and malt, and when the short-sighted policy of the lawmakers imposed exorbitant duties upon imported hops and malt before enough of these materials could be raised at home, and at the same time fixed the price of domestic malt-beer and its quality at a rate which made the business unprofitable, brewing naturally declined, and in the logical course of things molasses was then transformed into rum or the latter article imported in the place of the former.