The Hospital that Rum Built

The so called "Rum Hospital", which still stands on Macquarie Street, was constructed in return for exclusive rights to import rum into the young colony. How did it come to pass that rum was such an important commodity in colonial Sydney? Did this government contract exacerbate the drunken debauchery that Macquarie had been tasked with bringing under control? And was this novel contract a good deal for the government, or an absolute bonanza for the rum-importing, hospital- constructing cartel?