Shut up about Barclay Perkins - Japanese beer in Britain
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Casual racism. It's a constant problem when rummaging around in history's basement. I hope I don't need to point out that I don't condone this sort of thing. But neither am I going to censore the past for the sake of modern sensibilities.
I'm not sure what to make of this little article about a flood of Japanese beer about to wash over Britain:
"A Small Jap, Please."
Brewers in this country are not alarmed by the prospect, referied to in the Board of Trade Gazette, of competition with Japanese beer. Although we are told that this beverage "being imported in considerable quantities," members of prominent firms here say they had never even seen it. "What with the duty and other expenses to the Japanese brewer," said Director of one company, "it not a commercial proposition. There is hardly any foreign beer this country now. Even Dutch lager has almost disappeared." It looks therefore, as if it will be a long time before Britishers are heard asking for small Jap, please.
Evening Telegraph - Friday 10 September 1920, page 4.
The quantity of beer being importted at the time was indeed tiny:
| British beer imports (standard barrels) |
| 1918 |
1920 |
1922 |
1923 |
1924 |
| 16 |
590 |
4,033 |
7,017 |
1,392,576 |
| Sources: |
| Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 51 |
| Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 115 |
The big jump in 1924 was a technical matter. That's the first year the Republic of Ireland was included as a foreign country. The vast majority of those million-odd barrels was Guinness.
Japanese brewers had taken advantage of the disruption to international trade caused by WW I. Before the war, the Dutch East Indies had been supplied with beer from Holland and Denmark. The chaos caused to international shipping left Dutch breweries desperately short of raw materials and unable to export sfaely. The same was presumably true of Denmark. So the Dutch East Indies turned to Japan for supplies:
"Military beer.
Since no beer is supplied from the Netherlands for the military Societies, the War Department intends to import Japanese beer. Statements of the quantities required have already been requested."
Het nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië, 29-05-1917, page 2. (My translation.)
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