456 THE BREWING INDUSTRY IN IRELAND. 



The state of your brewery on a comparative with its state thirty years ago, 

 is that of a rapid decline, the decrease is about one-third ; increase of im- 

 portation nearly two-thirds ; whereas the increase of intoxication, that is 

 the increase of the consumption of whiskey in the course of twenty years, 

 has been enormous. Judge from this growth of poison and this decline of 

 nutriment how necessary the interference of Parliament to sustain the 

 latter (i.e., brewing) as well as to check the former (i.e., distilling)." 



After a long discussion several resolutions were carried to the effect that 

 it was desirable to curtail the present excessive use of low priced spirituous 

 liquors ; and that decisive advantages should be given to the breweries over 

 the distilleries by means of alterations in the duties, so as to secure a decided 

 preference for the breweries. Effect was given to these resolutions three 

 years later when the tax on beer was withdrawn. It may be noted here that 

 in 1830 the beer tax was repealed in England also, and that until 1880 no 

 tax was directly levied on beer in either country, though it was indirectly 

 taxed by means of a duty on malt (which, during the greater part of the 

 nineteenth century, stood as 2s. S%d. per bushel), and by taxes on hops 

 and sugar used for brewing, and by the levying of licence duties. 



The official returns as to the amount yielded by the malt tax until its 



repeal in 1880, furnish the best indication of the 



The production progress of brewing. In 1785, when the malt tax was 



of Malt. first imposed in Ireland, the number of bushels upon 



which duty was paid was 4,446,343, and this was about 

 the average for the remainder of the century. For some reason, which is not 

 very apparent, as there is evidence to show that brewing did not decline, 

 the quantity of malt upon which duty was paid in Ireland greatly declined, 

 despite the rapid increase in population in the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century ; in 1816 the total quantity fell, for the first time on record, below the 

 2,000,000 bushels mark, and about this figure it fluctuated for some twenty 

 years. For the ten years following the starting of Father Mathew's temper- 

 ance crusade in 1838, the amount of malt annually charged with duty aver- 

 aged only about 1,500,000 bushels, and it was not until 1859 that the 2,oco,ooo 

 bushels mark was again exceeded. The consumption of beer in Ireland had 

 just then received considerable encouragement from the heavy increases 

 which had been made in the spirit duty, and accordingly the quantity of malt 

 on which duty was paid steadily increased, and in 1871 exceeded 3,000,000, 

 bushels, whilst the average for the decade immediately preceding the repeal 

 of the malt tax (1871-80) was even higher. It may be of interest to note 

 that the amount upon which duty was paid in England averaged about 

 25,000,000 bushels during the first thirty years of the century ; after the 

 repeal of the beer tax and the reform of the licensing duties m 1830, the 

 amount steadily rose, except for a slight check during the early forties ; in 

 1 860 it exceeded 40,000,000 bushels, and thirteen years later the 50,000,000 

 bushels mark was passed, and during the last ten years that the malt tax was 

 levied the average annual amount of malt upon which duty was paid in the 

 whole of the United Kingdom exceeded 56,000,000 bushels. 



The decline at the beginning of the nineteenth century in the 



amount of malt upon which duty was paid in Ireland 



The Revival of of which mention has been made above, was, 



Brewing in Ireland, no doubt, partly due to the increase in the rate of 



the duty levied on malt. This duty, which averaged 

 about 2s. per bushel in the ten years immediately following the 



