Canteen is a refreshment-house in a barrack for the use of the soldiers. In the British army bread and meat are supplied to the soldier direct by the commissariat, but he has to buy beer and groceries for himself; and the canteen is a shop where he can do so at practically cost price, with a certainty that they will be good, without going beyond the precincts of the barrack. The men living in each room are formed into a mess, which opens an account with the canteen for the supply of dinner beer, tea, coffee, potatoes, and other similar necessaries. The mess accounts are kept by the non-commissioned officer in charge of the room, made up weekly, and inspected by an officer. A certain fixed sum is charged to each man's account to defray the mess expenses, and the canteen bill is paid monthly. A mess is not allowed to get into debt to any extent. If one week's account shows a deficit, the men have to go without something the next week in order to clear it off. They can also buy anything they like from the canteen on their own account, paying for it in cash. Formerly, the canteens were under civilian tenants, at rents varying from £4 to £1344 per annum, realising collectively about £70,000 annually. Gross intoxication having resulted from the sale of spirits at the canteens, the War Office prohibited such sale in 1847, lowering the rents by £20,000 to meet the reduced profits. As it was to the tenant's interest to encourage the soldier to drink, as well as to adulterate the articles sold, and to charge high prices, the canteen has since 1857 been made a regimental establishment, controlled by a committee of officers, with a canteen-sergeant, on a fixed salary, as salesman. Tobacco and the smallwares required by the troops are also sold at canteens. The profits are utilised for the benefit of the men of the corps, and the families of those who are married.
In French barracks, the canteen is a sort of club-room for the whole regiment. The cantinier is a non-commissioned officer, who acts merely as an agent for all, selling the liquors and commodities at prime cost.