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11-08-2012, 07:15
Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/08/statistics-of-brewing-in-scotland-for.html)
You know what I've not done for ages? Published loads of numbery things about Scottish brewing. Output by region, number of breweries. That sort of thing.
You have to hand it to the Inland Revenue. They were very efficient at collecting numbers as well as taxes. What a nightmare it would have been had beer not been taxed in Britain. We'd have very little idea how much beer was brewed in any year. These figures, broken down by revenue collection, give a good idea of the spread of brewing and breweries around Scotland. And by comparing them with the figures for 1849 (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.nl/2011/06/beer-output-by-scottish-region-in-1849.html), longer-term trends are also apparent.
This isn't much of a newspaper article. Just a table of numbers, really:
"STATISTICS OF BREWING IN SCOTLAND.
Among the Parliamentary papers issued on Tuesday was a return compiled in the Inland Revenue Office showing the number of persons in each of the several collections of the United Kingdom licensed as brewers' victuallers to sell beer to be drunk on the premises, and to sell beer not to be drunk on the premises, stating the number of each class who brew their own beer, and the quantity of malt consumed by them, particularising each class in each collection, from the 1st October 1872 to the 30th September 1873. This return gives the following figures in regard to the collections in Scotland :
Collections.
Number of licences issued to common Brewers
Number of licences issued to Victuallers
Victuallers who brew their own beer
Bushels of Malt consumed by common Brewers
Bushels of Malt consumed by common Victuallers
Aberdeen
0
848
22
0
66,106
Campbeltown
0
145
0
0
0
Dumfries
5
472
6
10,564
22,673
Dundee
1
1,259
32
38,049
94,721
Edinburgh
30
1,227
0
1,678,600
0
Elgin
0
432
9
0
24,504
Fort-William
0
29
0
0
0
Glasgow
10
2,310
0
419,430
0
Greenock
9
1,833
1
70,834
3,167
Haddington
8
781
13
63,698
46,068
Inverness
0
335
3
0
8,434
Linlithgow
3
1,318
2
39,971
38,848
Oban
0
64
0
0
0
Orkney
0
50
2
0
408
Perth
2
505
20
4,936
47,483
Poolewe
0
26
0
0
0
Shetland
0
33
0
0
0
Skye
0
38
0
0
0
Stirling
6
732
10
244,162
38,699
Stornoway
0
29
0
0
0
Thurso
0
49
0
0
0
Wick
1
75
0
239
0
Totals
75
12,592
120
2,570,504
356,111
Totals
75
12,590
120
2,570,483
391,111
Beer exported from 1st October 1872 to 1st October 1873:-
Quantity.
Declared Value.
From Scotland
54,216 barrels
£237,499
From United Kingdom,
583,602 "
£2,385,306
Falkirk Herald - Thursday 16 July 1874, page 2.Wondering why there are two sets of totals? The first is from the newspaper. The second is the actual total of the figures in the column. They seem to have messed up their additions somewhat.
It's apparent that Edinburgh was the undisputed champion of Scottish brewing. The table below will makes that even clearer. I've constructed it from the figures in the newspaper table, assuming two bushels of malt to one barrel of beer.
Collections.
barrels brewed by common brewers
barrels brewed by victuallers
total barrels brewed
% of total brewed
total no breweries
% of total
Aberdeen
33,053
33,053
2.23%
22
11.28%
Campbeltown
0
0
Dumfries
5,282
11,337
16,619
1.12%
11
5.64%
Dundee
19,025
47,361
66,385
4.48%
33
16.92%
Edinburgh
839,300
839,300
56.68%
30
15.38%
Elgin
12,252
12,252
0.83%
9
4.62%
Fort-William
0
0
Glasgow
209,715
209,715
14.16%
10
5.13%
Greenock
35,417
1,584
37,001
2.50%
10
5.13%
Haddington
31,849
23,034
54,883
3.71%
21
10.77%
Inverness
4,217
4,217
0.28%
3
1.54%
Linlithgow
19,986
19,424
39,410
2.66%
5
2.56%
Oban
0
0
Orkney
204
204
0.01%
2
1.03%
Perth
2,468
23,742
26,210
1.77%
22
11.28%
Poolewe
0
0
Shetland
0
0
Skye
0
0
Stirling
122,081
19,350
141,431
9.55%
16
8.21%
Stornoway
0
0
Thurso
0
0
Wick
120
120
0.01%
1
0.51%
Totals
0
195
Totals
1,285,242
195,556
1,480,797
100%
195
100%
Over 50% of Scottish beer was brewed in Edinburgh. The only other region with over 10% was Glasgow. It's 14% is up considerably for 1849 in both relative and absolute terms. Percentage wise, from 6.82% to 14.16%. In terms of quantity, from29,725 to 209,715 barrels. The growth in output in Edinburgh was almost as impressive, rising from 201,421 to 839,300 barrels.
It shows just how much Scottish brewing boomed in the middle of the 19th century. Total ouput rose from 435,792 to 1,480,797 barrels. That's a rise of over 300% in 24 years.
The geographical spread of breweries was narrowing. In the Highland collections - Campbeltown, Inverness, Oban, Fort-William, Poolewe, Thurso, Wick and Elgin - there was just 1 common brewer and three publican brewers. In the Island collections - Stornoway, Orkney, Shetland and Skye - there were only 2 publican brewers, both on Orkney. Eventually there would be no breweries at all outside the central Lowlands.
Finally the exports. At 50,000-odd barrels they were still quite modest in 1873. And less than 10% of total UK exports. That would change, as Scottish breweries came to dominate British exports at the end of the 19th century.https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5445569787371915337-428126377588296588?l=barclayperkins.blogspot.com
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/08/statistics-of-brewing-in-scotland-for.html)
You know what I've not done for ages? Published loads of numbery things about Scottish brewing. Output by region, number of breweries. That sort of thing.
You have to hand it to the Inland Revenue. They were very efficient at collecting numbers as well as taxes. What a nightmare it would have been had beer not been taxed in Britain. We'd have very little idea how much beer was brewed in any year. These figures, broken down by revenue collection, give a good idea of the spread of brewing and breweries around Scotland. And by comparing them with the figures for 1849 (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.nl/2011/06/beer-output-by-scottish-region-in-1849.html), longer-term trends are also apparent.
This isn't much of a newspaper article. Just a table of numbers, really:
"STATISTICS OF BREWING IN SCOTLAND.
Among the Parliamentary papers issued on Tuesday was a return compiled in the Inland Revenue Office showing the number of persons in each of the several collections of the United Kingdom licensed as brewers' victuallers to sell beer to be drunk on the premises, and to sell beer not to be drunk on the premises, stating the number of each class who brew their own beer, and the quantity of malt consumed by them, particularising each class in each collection, from the 1st October 1872 to the 30th September 1873. This return gives the following figures in regard to the collections in Scotland :
Collections.
Number of licences issued to common Brewers
Number of licences issued to Victuallers
Victuallers who brew their own beer
Bushels of Malt consumed by common Brewers
Bushels of Malt consumed by common Victuallers
Aberdeen
0
848
22
0
66,106
Campbeltown
0
145
0
0
0
Dumfries
5
472
6
10,564
22,673
Dundee
1
1,259
32
38,049
94,721
Edinburgh
30
1,227
0
1,678,600
0
Elgin
0
432
9
0
24,504
Fort-William
0
29
0
0
0
Glasgow
10
2,310
0
419,430
0
Greenock
9
1,833
1
70,834
3,167
Haddington
8
781
13
63,698
46,068
Inverness
0
335
3
0
8,434
Linlithgow
3
1,318
2
39,971
38,848
Oban
0
64
0
0
0
Orkney
0
50
2
0
408
Perth
2
505
20
4,936
47,483
Poolewe
0
26
0
0
0
Shetland
0
33
0
0
0
Skye
0
38
0
0
0
Stirling
6
732
10
244,162
38,699
Stornoway
0
29
0
0
0
Thurso
0
49
0
0
0
Wick
1
75
0
239
0
Totals
75
12,592
120
2,570,504
356,111
Totals
75
12,590
120
2,570,483
391,111
Beer exported from 1st October 1872 to 1st October 1873:-
Quantity.
Declared Value.
From Scotland
54,216 barrels
£237,499
From United Kingdom,
583,602 "
£2,385,306
Falkirk Herald - Thursday 16 July 1874, page 2.Wondering why there are two sets of totals? The first is from the newspaper. The second is the actual total of the figures in the column. They seem to have messed up their additions somewhat.
It's apparent that Edinburgh was the undisputed champion of Scottish brewing. The table below will makes that even clearer. I've constructed it from the figures in the newspaper table, assuming two bushels of malt to one barrel of beer.
Collections.
barrels brewed by common brewers
barrels brewed by victuallers
total barrels brewed
% of total brewed
total no breweries
% of total
Aberdeen
33,053
33,053
2.23%
22
11.28%
Campbeltown
0
0
Dumfries
5,282
11,337
16,619
1.12%
11
5.64%
Dundee
19,025
47,361
66,385
4.48%
33
16.92%
Edinburgh
839,300
839,300
56.68%
30
15.38%
Elgin
12,252
12,252
0.83%
9
4.62%
Fort-William
0
0
Glasgow
209,715
209,715
14.16%
10
5.13%
Greenock
35,417
1,584
37,001
2.50%
10
5.13%
Haddington
31,849
23,034
54,883
3.71%
21
10.77%
Inverness
4,217
4,217
0.28%
3
1.54%
Linlithgow
19,986
19,424
39,410
2.66%
5
2.56%
Oban
0
0
Orkney
204
204
0.01%
2
1.03%
Perth
2,468
23,742
26,210
1.77%
22
11.28%
Poolewe
0
0
Shetland
0
0
Skye
0
0
Stirling
122,081
19,350
141,431
9.55%
16
8.21%
Stornoway
0
0
Thurso
0
0
Wick
120
120
0.01%
1
0.51%
Totals
0
195
Totals
1,285,242
195,556
1,480,797
100%
195
100%
Over 50% of Scottish beer was brewed in Edinburgh. The only other region with over 10% was Glasgow. It's 14% is up considerably for 1849 in both relative and absolute terms. Percentage wise, from 6.82% to 14.16%. In terms of quantity, from29,725 to 209,715 barrels. The growth in output in Edinburgh was almost as impressive, rising from 201,421 to 839,300 barrels.
It shows just how much Scottish brewing boomed in the middle of the 19th century. Total ouput rose from 435,792 to 1,480,797 barrels. That's a rise of over 300% in 24 years.
The geographical spread of breweries was narrowing. In the Highland collections - Campbeltown, Inverness, Oban, Fort-William, Poolewe, Thurso, Wick and Elgin - there was just 1 common brewer and three publican brewers. In the Island collections - Stornoway, Orkney, Shetland and Skye - there were only 2 publican brewers, both on Orkney. Eventually there would be no breweries at all outside the central Lowlands.
Finally the exports. At 50,000-odd barrels they were still quite modest in 1873. And less than 10% of total UK exports. That would change, as Scottish breweries came to dominate British exports at the end of the 19th century.https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5445569787371915337-428126377588296588?l=barclayperkins.blogspot.com
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012/08/statistics-of-brewing-in-scotland-for.html)