I'm not aware of any evidence that nineteenth century liquor bottlers
thought that light could damage their products.  I believe that colourless
glass was what everyone would have preferred, but  it was simply not
economical to manufacture common bottle glass in such a pure state.  So if
it was going to turn out coloured anyway, why not add something that would
deliberately colour it so at least all the bottles would look the same?
Conventions for using particular colours for particular functions followed
-  a case of making a virtue out of a necessity.
 
In Britain between 1746 and 1845, clear glass was taxed at a higher rate
than coloured glass, providing a strong incentive to package liquor in the
traditional green-black bottles.  Ure's Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures
and Mines (6th edition 1867) gives a list of pigments used in colouring
glass -  cobalt for blue, copper for red, iron for brown, uranium for
yellow etc -  but does not mention any functional reasons for using
colours.
 
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