THE BREWING INDUSTRY IN IRELAND. 457 



repeal of the beer tax in 1795, after several fluctuations became settled at 

 2s. yd., and the decrease in the amount of malt upon which duty was paid 

 without doubt was due in part to the decrease in lawful distillation, and the 

 increase in illicit distillation which followed upon the sharp increases in 

 taxation to which spirits became subject after 1795, but still it is hard to 

 account for the remarkable decrease in the amount of malt upon which duty 

 was paid. However, as already mentioned, it seems quite certain that the 

 decrease was not due to any decline in the production of beer. Brewing 

 revived in Ireland after the repeal of the beer duty, and porter brewing is 

 said to have received a marked stimulus at the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century from the introduction of the use of roasted malt as a colouring and 

 flavouring material, though it was not until 1850-60 that porter became the 

 really popular drink in Ireland and that the Irish trade became mainly a 

 porter trade. Newenham, in his "View of Ireland," published in 1809, 

 stated that according to official estimates the beer made in Ireland in 1808 

 exceeded 751,000 barrels or nearly double what the Right Hon. John Foster 

 stated in the speech, already mentioned, to be the annual production about 

 1790. Newenham attributes the decline in the amoimt of malt charged with 

 duty to the illicit malting carried on with the collusion of the revenue 

 officers, and declares that the amount of beer brewed in Ireland in 1 808 was 

 really far greater than the 751,000 barrels stated. " It is obvious to every- 

 one," he wrote, " that the number of breweries in Ireland has been 

 augmented since the year 1792 ; that the additional ones are on a much 

 more extensive scale than the former ones, and that the proprietors resort to 

 every expedient (the writer hopes with increased success) to induce the 

 people to prefer their liquor to whiskey." In the province of Munster 

 he states that there was an almost universal preference given to malt liquors 

 over spirits, " and the porter brewers of the city of Cork alone almost vie 

 in extent with some of the principal ones in London." 



That the brewing industry was rapidly expanding in Ireland early in the 

 nineteenth century, despite the enormous decrease in 



The Rise of the the amount of malt which is returned as having paid 

 Export Trade. duty, is shown also by the figures relating to the 

 export and import of beer. We have already seen 

 that the importation of beer from England averaged over 100,000 barrels a 

 year about 1790, but the importation of beer declined, and Ireland soon 

 began to. export beer to England. The first year when the exports of beer 

 exceeded the imports was 18 14, when the figures were: — imports from 

 England, 215 barrels; imports from Scotland, 24 barrels; exports to 

 England, 424 barrels ; exports to Scotland. 46 barrels. 



In 1823 the exports of Irish beer first exceeded the 1,000 barrels mark, 

 and in 1828 Ireland exported 8,035 barrels to England, 48 to Scotland, and 

 3,180 to foreign countries, whilst the imports from England were but 505 

 barrels. Most of the beer exported from Ireland has always been shipped 

 from the port of Dublin, and in 1861 the quantity thus exported to Great 

 Britain was 170,384 hogsheads; the exports increased in 1871 to 281,301, 

 in 1 88 1 to 338,690, and in 1891 to 460,985 hogsheads. During the last 

 decade there were considerable fluctuations, the total falling in 1898 to 

 368,628 hogsheads, but the last few years has witnessed a revival in the 

 export trade, and in 1901 the quantity exported was 459,864 hogsheads. 



The temperance movement headed by Father Mathew of course affected 

 the production of beer, though to a less extent than it affected the produc- 



