Spirits helped build America in two ways: financially and early on in health ways. When this country was first settled, the drinking water was often contaminated. Sewer systems did not exist, and human waste was commonly dumped into the streets, waiting for the rain to carry it away, often to the water source. Many people became sick from drinking untreated water, and through trial and error, our founding fathers found that applying alcohol to the water decreased the deaths that they could not define. It was good common practice in the early days to treat whatever liquid your were drinking with a little rum which was a common liquor at the time. All of those blossomed into a multi-billion dollar industry.