Monday 22 November 2010

WW I and the Netherlands

Or the Dutch brewing industry. Remember that post from a couple of days ago about U-boats and Amstel? I mentioned the surprisingly large impact on the neutral Netherlands.

I thought I had some numbers somewhere to demonstrate that impact. I did. And I've gathered them up for you, like sticklebacks in a net. The number of breweries in the UK and the Netherlands 1895 to 1930. I knew this stuff would come in handy one day.

First, the Netherlands:


Dutch breweries by province

1890 1900 1910 1920 1930
Noord-Brabant 241 214 191 72 65
Gelderland 42 31 27 13 10
Zuid-Holland 35 25 24 14 -
Noord-Holland 22 19 17 12 10
Zeeland 36 33 31 25 25
Utrecht 12 7 7 4 3
Overijssel 10 9 7 3 3
Friesland 2 2 2 2 2
Groningen 20 16 14 1 1
Drenthe 1 1 1 0 0
Limburg 236 216 201 77 66
Total: 657 574 522 223 198
Sources:
Nederlands Etiketten Logboek, 1998

Note the big drop between 1910 and 1920.

Now here's the UK:


UK breweries 1890 - 1930

1890 1900 1905 1910 1914 1920 1930
<1000 barrels 9,986 4,759 3,787
2,536

>1000 barrels 2,014 1,531 1,393
1,111

total 12,000 6,290 5,180 4,512 3,647 2,914 1,418
Sources:
"Journal of the Institute of Brewing, vol 7", 1901, page 64
BBPA Statistical Handbook 2003, p. 92
Brewers' Almanack 1955 p.69


See? Between 1910 and 1920 57% of Dutch breweries closed and only 35% of UK breweries.

Looks to me like WW I was worse for Dutch brewing than British.

2 comments:

mentaldental said...

That's interesting and I guess it shows the effect of "total war". Neutrality doesn't help much when your cargo is at the bottom of the Atlantic.

What happened in Groningen? 14 breweries down to 1! An ecstasy of mergers/takeovers perhaps?

Ron Pattinson said...

Mentaldental, it sounds like many breweries closed just because they had nothing to brew with.