THE BREWING INDUSTRY IN IRELAND. 453 



being from 5^". to Ss. on a barrel of strong beer during the greater part of 

 the eighteenth century, and lOs. per barrel from 1802 to 1830, when the tax 

 which had been repealed in Ireland in 1795, was repealed in England also. 



For a long time in England, viz., from 1697- 1830, and for a short time in 

 Ireland, viz., from 1786- 1795, beer was subject to a double duty, for in 

 addition to the beer tax already mentioned, a tax on malt was levied un- 

 interruptedly from 1697 in England, and from 1786 in Ireland, until 1880. 

 The tax in England was at first 6d. per bushel, but after sixteen years it 

 was raised to gd., and then gradually increased until it reached 4^-. ^d. in 

 1804. At this time the tax on beer in England was lOs. per barrel ; and as 

 about two bushels of malt were usually used in making a barrel of beer, 

 and as hops were also taxed, and as a license duty was imposed upon 

 brewers by Pitt in 1784, the total amount of taxes levied on a barrel of beer 

 in England at the beginning of the nineteenth century amounted to nearly 

 £1 per barrel, as compared with a duty of from three to four shillings a 

 century earlier. 



The result of this heavy taxation was that the brewing industry in 

 England made little progress during the eighteenth 

 Result of Taxation, century. The greatest production of malt during the 

 century or more of double taxation, when the beer 

 duty was co-existent with the malt tax, was in 1722, when 32,999,688 

 bushels were charged with duty ; and the lowest was in 1 800, when the 

 amount was less than half that of 1722. The amount of malt pro- 

 duced in the twelve years ending 18 16 was slightly less than the amount 

 produced in the twelve years ending 1720, and the average annual 

 production of beer — something like 10,000,000 barrels — remained fairly 

 constant throughout the century, despite the great increase in population. 

 This decrease in the consumption of beer per head of population was, 

 of course, partly due to the increased use of tea and coffee, owing 

 to the preference that was developed for these beverages, quite 

 apart from the increased price of beer. In 1722, when beer was the com- 

 mon beverage at every meal, the consumption of tea averaged but one 

 ounce per head; in 1830 it had increased to thirty-six ounces, and during 

 the same time the use of ardent spirits had increased from half a gallon per 

 head to double that quantity. The fact that the brewing industry made 

 little or no progress during this period is, however, mainly attributable to the 

 heavy taxation, and it was not until the beer tax was repealed in 1 830 and 

 the licensing laws reformed, that the brewing industry in England began 

 again to expand. 



The Progress of Brewing in Ireland. 



Little is known of the early history of brewing in Ireland where beer was 

 not a national drink in the same way as in England. In the reign of James I., 

 however, Dublin was noted for its brown ale, and early in the eighteenth 

 century it was estimated that the amount of beer annually produced in 

 Ireland was nearly half a million barrels, Dublin and Cork being the chief 

 brewing centres, while there was a considerable quantity of beer imported 

 Several of the existing Irish breweries can lay claim to very considerable 

 antiquity. Thus the firm of Messrs. Jameson, Pim, and Co., hold leases 

 dating from 171 5, and in 1766 the Ardee-street Brewery, then owned by 

 Sir James Taylor, headed the list of the forty Dublin Breweries which pedd 



