Shut up about Barclay Perkins - UK beer tax and tax yield 1930 - 1939
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As promised, some numbers to go with yesterday's post.
I started collecting statistics years ago, long before this blog kicked off. It was a lot of effort for no particular direct return. Longterm, it's a totally different matter. I'm so glad I put the work in because I have most of the numbers I need to hand. Like this set.
A couple of notes. The tax in 1930 and 1934 - 1939 wasn't really 80 shillings a barrel. It was 100/- per standard barrel with a 20/- rebate per bulk barrel. Which meant that the tax was effectively higher the stronger the beer. For example, a barrel of 1027.5º (half standard gravity) would be 50/- minus 20/- making the tax 30/-. While a beer at the standard gravity of 1055º would be 100/- minus 20/- leaving tax of 80/-. You can see that the stronger beer paid more than double the tax of the weaker beer.
The average tax per pint I've calcutated in a very simple way: by dividing the total tax collected by the number of pints brewed.
| UK beer tax and tax yield 1930 - 1939 |
| Year |
Total Tax £ |
Bulk Barrels |
Std. Barrels |
Tax/Std. Brl |
Av. sg |
tax pint |
| 1930 |
71,254,674 |
25,061,956 |
19,550,867 |
80s |
1042.9 |
2.37d |
| 1931 |
69,269,299 |
23,900,213 |
18,488,400 |
114s |
1042.54 |
2.42d |
| 1932 |
68,710,020 |
20,790,812 |
15,514,209 |
114s |
1041.04 |
2.75d |
| 1933 |
67,097,581 |
17,950,303 |
12,658,324 |
114s |
1039.52 |
3.11d |
| 1934 |
53,884,405 |
20,182,308 |
15,043,120 |
80s |
1040.99 |
2.22d |
| 1935 |
53,582,335 |
20,864,814 |
15,577,836 |
80s |
1041.06 |
2.14d |
| 1936 |
55,451,926 |
21,969,763 |
16,386,985 |
80s |
1041.02 |
2.10d |
| 1937 |
57,318,585 |
22,724,450 |
16,985,231 |
80s |
1041.1 |
2.10d |
| 1938 |
61,241,404 |
24,205,631 |
18,055,539 |
80s |
1041.02 |
2.11d |
| 1939 |
62,370,034 |
24,674,992 |
18,364,156 |
80s |
1040.93 |
2.11d |
| Sources: |
| 1928 Brewers' Almanack |
| 1955 Brewers' Almanack |
You can see that Sir Edgar Sanders was correct when he said that the tax on a pint of beer was 3d a pint in 1933. Though the tax yield was even lower that £74,000,000 and didn't even reach £70 million. The amount of tax collected only got back to the level of 1931 in 1940, after extra wartime taxation had been levied.
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