THE BREWING INDUSTRY IN IRELAND. 455 



was no royal road to good brewing ; that the only way to succeed was 

 an observance of certain general principles, and that though bad beer might 

 be brewed from good malt, the foundation of brewing good beer was good 

 malt. He controverted the statement of Irish brewers that the defects in 

 Irish porter were due to bad hops and bad barley, and attributed them rather 

 to bad malting, and he pointed out that, with proper materials, suitable 

 utensils, and a skilful " artist," there could be no doubt that it would be 

 possible to brew in Dublin porter similar to that brewed in London. 



During the early part of the eighteenth century brewing increased in 

 Ireland, a number of breweries were started, and Dublin and Cork became 

 great brewing centres, and in the middle of the century the annual amount 

 of beer brewed in Ireland was about 600,000 barrels of strong beer. The 

 excise tax in Ireland was considerably lower than in England, and as 

 already mentioned, averaged during the eighteenth century, about 4.S. per 

 barrel on strong beer, and about gd. on small beer, and no malt tax was 

 levied in Ireland until 1786. Still, despite the comparatively low duty and 

 the fostering care of the Royal Dublin Society, brewing began to fall off 

 in Ireland, with the result that the amount imported from England increased 

 from about 15,000 barrels in 1750 to about 65,000 in 1785, and to over 

 100,000 barrels in 1792. The imposition in 1786 of a tax of yd. per bushel 

 on malt accelerated the decline, as the tax on beer amounted to 4s., and 

 hops were also taxed, and the licence duty was high. 



In 1 79 1 the condition of the brewing industry attracted considerable 

 attention in the Irish Parliament The decline in 

 The Irish Parliament brewing had been accompanied by a great increase 

 and Brewing. in the consumption of spirits. The amount of whiskey 

 charged with duty for consumption in Ireland had 

 risen from a little over 100,000 gallons at the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century, when the duty was 4d. per gallon, to over 3,400,000 gallons in 1790, 

 although the duty had increased to li". i^.'^.d., and it was universally 

 admitted that an enormous quantity of spirits was illicitly distilled, whilst 

 over 1,000,000 gallons of spirits were imported. A strong opinion was 

 expressed throughout the country that the best way to discourage the 

 excessive consumption of spirits was by encouraging brewing. The spirit 

 duty at the time was is. i]4.d. per gallon, and the beer duty 

 4s. 6d. per barrel, and although all malt whether used for distil- 

 ling or brewing was subject to the same malt tax (/d. per 

 bushel in 1791), the distiller received a refund in the shape of a drawback. 

 It was accordingly suggested that the beer duty should be abolished and 

 that the tax on spirits should be increased. In February, 1791, the Speaker 

 (Right Hon. John Foster, M.P. for Louth County) declared that the average 

 number of barrels of beer annually brewed in Ireland in the past five years 

 was only 400,000 as compared with an average of 600,000 for the period 

 1760-65, and that the decline was mainly due to excessive legislation and 

 oppressive restrictions. Mr. Beresford urged in reply that the apparent 

 decUne in the amount of beer brewed was due to frauds on the 

 revenue ; he pointed out that of the eighteen hundred retailing brewers 

 licensed in Ireland at the time, less than half paid duty on even one barrel in 

 the year, and " there are besides these innumerable persons vulgarly called 

 ' shebeeners,' who brew and sell without license or duty." Mr. Grattan 

 declared that " whatever is adopted with regard to spirituous liquors would 

 be imperfect, indeed, if nothing was done in advancement of the breweries. 



