Monday 26 May 2014

British beer exports 1862 - 1872

It's funny the places you find evidence. Like this about what type of beer was being exported.

What kicked everything off was finding figures for British beer exports in the Brewers' Guardian. I collect all sorts of statitics, but especially stuff like this that show how much British beer was being exported to various parts of the globe.

They tell me a few things directly. Like that British exports to the USA were rising sharply, those to Australia in decline, those to the West Indies and India fairly stable. Except for a blip in 1870 when considerably more beer was shipped to India.

But because the figures include value as well as volume, there's other information than can be indirectly gleaned. Why not see how much the beer exported to various locations cost per barrel. It's easy enough to work out.

I know from other sources that the majority of beer shipped to the West Indies was either Stout or Strong Ale. Which means that the average price per barrel should be relatively high. The same should also be true for Australia, where a lot of stronger beers were shipped. I'd expect a list in terms of the average price to look like this, in descending order:

West Indies
Australia
USA
India


British beer exports 1862 - 1872
1862 1863 1864
barrels declared value barrels declared value barrels declared value
India 159,140 £445,801 152,588 £429,564 165,037 £498,449
Australia 153,145 £563,907 166,418 £645,716 124,556 £506,691
British West Indies 21,014 £75,220 22,100 £79,393 26,887 £104,037
United States of America 7,780 £31,446 7,644 £33,053 9,830 £43,681
Other countries 123,748 £479,280 142,881 £558,512 164,176 £670,304
Total 464,827 £1,595,654 491,631 £1,746,238 490,486 £1,823,162
1870 1871 1872
barrels declared value barrels declared value barrels declared value
India 216,663 £576,960 161,859 £492,885 167,597 £522,593
Australia 89,808 £369,741 80,511 £324,061 88,184 £359,701
British West Indies 23,402 £89,007 28,013 £106,243 27,199 £102,491
United States of America 29,512 £148,409 36,402 £181,195 44,360 £223,579
Other countries 161,814 £697,556 176,335 £749,389 194,616 £876,219
Total 521,199 £1,881,673 483,120 £1,853,773 521,956 £2,084,583
Sources:
"Sessional Papers, House of Lords, Vol. VII, Accounts and Papers", 1864, pages 20-21
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 3, 1873, page 13
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 3, 1873, page 14

Why India last? Because I know much of the beer sent there was Porter, which was relatively cheap. The figures bear this out. The average price of the beer sent to India was between 53 and 62 shillings per barrel. No way most of that could be IPA. Because even in Britain, a barrel of IPA cost 60 shillings a barrel:

Allsopp price list from 1871

You can see my other predictions were a bit out. The most expensive beer was sent to the USA, followed by Australia with the West Indies only in third place:


British beer exports price per barrel 1862 - 1872
1862 1863 1864 1870 1871 1872
India 56.03 56.30 60.40 53.26 60.90 62.36
Australia 73.64 77.60 81.36 82.34 80.50 81.58
British West Indies 71.59 71.85 77.39 76.07 75.85 75.36
United States of America 80.84 86.48 88.87 100.58 99.55 100.80
Other countries 77.46 78.18 81.66 86.22 85.00 90.05
Average 68.66 71.04 74.34 72.21 76.74 79.88
Sources:
"Sessional Papers, House of Lords, Vol. VII, Accounts and Papers", 1864, pages 20-21
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 3, 1873, page 13
Brewers' Guardian, Volume 3, 1873, page 14

What was being sent to the USA that was so expensive?

Not sure why the average price per barrel generally increased between 1862 and 1872. Any suggestions?

2 comments:

Alan said...

I would need to go back and check the research but during the US Civil War, whisky gets taxed so high tastes shift heavily to beer. Then, trade opens up creating markets for Canadian beer that close again in the 1890s. Maybe just general trade conditions?

Ron Pattinson said...

Alan,

I can't think of any reason British exports to the US were on the rise in the 1870's. But I'm sure there will be one.