THE BREWING INDUSTRY IN IRELAND. 459 



In lS8o a great change took place in the method of taxing beer, a direct tax 



on the beverage being substituted for the indirect taxes 



The present method formerly levied upon the materials used. This change 



of Taxation. had long been advocated as the collection of the malt 



duty had necessarily imposed oppressive restrictions 

 upon manufacturers, and the malt tax was objected to by many as econo- 

 mically unsound, being a tax on raw materials. The change in taxation, 

 however, was delayed for a long time ov/ing to the practical difficulties that 

 beset the collection of a beer tax in consequence of the great number of 

 breweries. This difficulty was largely obviated by the decline in the number 

 of breweries (over 50 per cent.) which took place in the forty years preceding 

 1880. This decrease in the number of brewers from whom the tax would 

 have to be collected, enabled Mr. Gladstone, as already mentioned, 

 to abolish, in 1880, the duties on malt and sugar used in brew- 

 mg, and to substitute a direct tax of 6s. T,d. per barrel of beer, 

 the tax being calculated according to the specific gravity of the worts 

 before fermentation, the standard barrel being one of 36 gallons of worts 

 of a specific gravity of 1.057° with an allowance of six per cent, for waste. 

 This change in taxation which established the principle of a " free mash- 

 tun," at once increased the rate of duty paid by brewers by about 10 per 

 cent. Thus, though the quantity of malt and sugar used in the four years 

 1 88 1 -4 was seven per cent, less than the quantity used in the preceding 

 period, the total amount received from brewers in the shape of beer duty in 

 1 88 1 -4 was considerably greater than the amount received in 1877-80 from 

 the taxes on malt and sugar. In i88g Mr. Goschen altered the standard 

 specific gravity, upon which the beer duty is charged, from 1.057° to 1.055°, 

 a change which was equivalent to a further increase in the duty of about 

 2}^d. per barrel. In 1894 the duty was increased by 6d., and in 1900 an 

 extra shilling was imposed, bringing the tax up to ys. gd. per barrel. The 

 result is that the taxes at present levied on beer are equivalent to a tax of 

 considerably over 30^'. per quarter of malt, or over 40 per cent, more than 

 was levied in the time of the malt tax, just twenty-two years ago. The net 

 produce of the beer tax in 1 900-1 901 was ;;^i 3,940,5 36, of which ;^449,9i6 

 was paid over to the Local Taxation Account and the remainder to the 

 Exchequer. The net amount of beer duty paid in Ireland in the year ended 

 31st March, 1901, was ;£"i, 204,670. 



The practice of requiring persons engaged in the preparation or sale of 



excisable commodities to take out licences, and of 



_ . -^ , charging a duty on such licences, existed, at least, as 



y* early as the reign of Queen Anne. The principle was 



not, however, very generally applied until the budget 

 for 1784, when at the close of the American War, Mr. Pitt imposed a duty 

 upon brewers which was made to vary from £1 los. to £"50 a year according to 

 the quantity of beer brewed. The earliest duties of this description in Ireland 

 were stamp duties, and in common with most of the other licences duties 

 were of a repressive nature. On the repeal of the beer duty in 1830 the 

 scale of duties on licences was re-cast, and the number of brewers in England 

 steadily rose to over 49,000 in 1838. From that date brewers declined in 

 number, so that in 1879 they amounted to 22,000; at present they number 

 over 18,000, two-thirds of whom are private brewers who do not brew for 

 sale. At the beginning of the century the average number of brewers 

 licensed in Ireland was about 220. After 1838 they gradually decreased, 

 until in 1852, when they numbered only 96, and at present the number is 39, 



