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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, 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 |
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Campbeltown |
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Dumfries |
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Dundee |
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Edinburgh |
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Elgin |
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Fort-William |
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Glasgow |
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Greenock |
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Haddington |
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Inverness |
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Linlithgow |
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Oban |
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Orkney |
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Perth |
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Poolewe |
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Shetland |
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Skye |
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Stirling |
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Stornoway |
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Thurso |
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Wick |
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Totals |
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Totals |
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Beer exported from 1st October 1872 to 1st October 1873:-
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Quantity. |
Declared Value. |
From Scotland |
54,216 barrels |
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From United Kingdom, |
583,602 " |
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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 |
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Campbeltown |
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Dumfries |
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Dundee |
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Edinburgh |
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Elgin |
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Fort-William |
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Glasgow |
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Greenock |
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Haddington |
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Inverness |
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Linlithgow |
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Oban |
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Orkney |
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Perth |
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Poolewe |
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Shetland |
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Skye |
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Stirling |
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Stornoway |
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Thurso |
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Wick |
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Totals |
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Totals |
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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.
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