Tuesday 8 May 2012

British beer exports 1890 - 1932

I told you we'd be returning to British beer exports. Another thromise. I'm so good at thromising. That's why I'm such a good dad.

I've only a few holes to fill in the late 1930's and early 1940's (can't imagine there was much exporting going on then) and I'll have most of the 20th century up to the 1980's. Pretty impressive, eh? Not sure what I'll ever do with the information, other than bother you lot.

Here's the table:


British Beer exports 1890 - 1932 (standard barrels)

1890 1900 1910 1913 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932
USA 48,991 47,700 69,688














Egypt 6,591 18,597 20,600 20,530 10,408 9,796 11,619 11,305 8,592 8,971 9,840 10,760 10,510 10,659 12,571 14,603 14,409 11,627
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan







271 450







Cuba




14,261 2,254 3,151 3,258 4,148 2,665 2,410 1,070




Irish Free State







28,007 36,549 40,135 37,884 38,073 38,740 43,271 41,208 36,878 34,995
Malta & Gozo 20,390 22,932


12,849 13,219 16,406 16,825 20,390 22,932 23,036 18,822 22,256 19,982 15,011 14,335 6,262
British S. Africa  25,582 31,446 5,937 5,253 464 3,302











British W. Africa




10,640 6,830 5,193 2,480 1,497 2,250 4,000 5,530 6,373 8,298 8,176 6,627 8,854
British India  97,196 94,918 96,914 100,181 23,776 60,751 45,555 45,548 39,515 46,180 47,562 57,600 60,814 66,714 71,594 70,124 60,031 53,630
Straits Settlements


37,740 7,928 22,063 6,588 8,827 9,312 5,855 8,287 16,003 16,360 18,759 25,351 19,150 9,974 7,407
Ceylon


2,335 956 2,154











Australia 


89,013 4,812 15,459 10,644 14,958 10,164 1,026







New Zealand 


9,598 477 2,717











Australasia  147,014 96,785 90,416

18,176











Brit. West India Islands  26,882 18,794 21,726 21,901 5,161 13,688 6,517 9,510 12,190 12,064 12,544 14,484 15,144 18,865 19,979 19,436 14,364 12,546
Belgium




128,237 88,852 80,216 69,942 62,703 75,772 52,805 55,820 71,305 81,512 79,338 82,132 65,310
France




29,436 19,256 15,664 12,607 10,886 11,381 9,234 7,865 8,936 8,463 8,455 7,265 4,729
Other Countries  150,565 202,605 285,065 368,910 177,691 390,252 259,690 263,982 50,190 53,284 57,456 54,817 58,507 65,422 61,921 53,023 43,501 41,165
Total  502,921 510,845 590,346 655,461 231,673 390,252 259,690 263,982 263,353 264,003 290,824 283,033 287,445 328,029 352,942 328,524 289,516 246,525
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1928, page 115, Brewers' Journal 1921, page 24, Brewers' Journal 1923, page 26, Brewers' Journal 1925, page 27, Brewers' Journal 1927, page 28, Brewers' Journal 1928, page 29, Brewers' Journal 1929, page 30, Brewers' Journal 1931, page 34, Brewers' Journal 1933, page 41

A bit of a monster, I know. That's why I've included an image, too. For those who have narrow screens.

A few long-term trends are apparent. The total collapse of the trade to South Africa and Australia just after WW II is the most obvious. Unsurprisingly, there were no exports to the USA in the 1920's. Though you have to be suspicious about all that beer sent to Cuba in 1920. Could that really have been for the locals?

I was surprised that the Indian trade held up as well as it did.  It eventaully recovered to about 60-70% of the 1913 volume. That's proportionally better than average, as total export volumes were about halved.

I really wish I had the figures for pre-war expoprts to Belgium. There must have been some, though I suspect on nothing like the later scale.  From nowhere it became the biggest recipient of British beer. Many British brewers made beer specially for the Belgian market, usually brewed at something close to pre-war strength.

The British West Indies took relatively small but steady amounts of British beer. Longterm, it was one of the most stable export markets. Presumably because of the slow development of local breweries.

And finally one other significant new market devloped in the 1920's: the Irish Free State as it was sos quaintly called back then. Beer had always been sent there, it just hadn't counted as a foreign country. The impact of Irish independence was far greater on imports. Of the 1,349,515 barrels imported into the UK in 1927, all but 20,000 came from Ireland*. The vast majority of it was Guinness.




* Brewers' Almanack 1928, page 115.

2 comments:

The Beer Nut said...

Presumably that import number tailed off after 1936 and the opening of Park Royal. That was the point of Park Royal, wasn't it?

Ron Pattinson said...

Beer Nut, yes and yes. Though quite a bit of Guinness was still shipped over from Ireland. I have the figures somewhere.