UK hop production, price and imports 1800 - 1854

The response to my series of posts of hop and barley statistics has been so overwhelming that I've decided to continue it a little longer. Bascially until I run out of numbers to fascinate you with.

The first thing that should strike you is how incredibly variable the hop harvest was. The difference between consecutive years could be enormous. The years 1800 to 1806 demonstrate these annual variations well. Hops are delicate plants, susceptible to the weather, pests and disease. Slight changes in conditions could have a huge impact on the crop.

In a recent post, Martyn Cortnell mentioned the incredibly poor summer of 1816 (caused by a vlocanic explosion in Asia) that led to a disatrous hop crop. But as you can see below, it was by no means the worst harvest, even in the same decade. 1802, 1805, 1812, 1823, 1825, 1829, 1840 and 1854 were all worse.

Unsurprisingly, the price went up and down with the harvest. In years of a good harvest, the price was between £4 and £7 per cwt. In poor years it could be almost £20 a cwt. Though when a poor harvest followed a bumper one, as in 1808 and 1809, old stock from the previous year kept the price low.

In the 1850's, imports began to pick up the slack when the British harvest was poor. Doubtless the price in 1854 would have been higher, save for the huge amount of hops that were imported.

It's easy to understand why the more far-sighted brewers bought in extra stocks during the good years. Trying to plan ahead must have been a nightmare when the price could vary by 200% or 300% from one year to the next.

When the import duty on hops was removed in 1862 in must have been a great relief to brewers. They were then free to buy their hops from anywhere in the world, which is exactly what they did and imports of hops remained hight until WW I.

UK hop production, price and imports 1800 - 1854
year	UK production lbs	London price per cwt. £ s. d.	imports lbs	year	UK production lbs	London price cwt. £ s. d.	imports lbs
1800	17,502,867	17 17 0		1828	41,286,692	5 12 0
1801	57,894,646	5 18 0		1829	9,568,981	8 8 0	4,591
1802	3,711,326	10 12 0		1830	21,131,442	12 8 0
1803	47,809,230	6 6 0		1831	41,971,222	5 18 0
1804	42,628,269	5 5 0		1832	33,364,403	8 13 0
1805	7,897,208	8 0 0		1833	37,657,340	7 4 0
1806	36,744,810	7 0 0		1834	45,531,402	6 3 0
1807	24,017,342	5 10 0		1835	56,449,732	4 15 0
1808	60,261,667	5 18 0		1836	48,079,932	5 0 0
1809	15,348,842	4 4 0		1837	42,858,781	5 1 6
1810	17,643,490	6 0 0		1838	41,173,471	5 17 0
1811	37,700,783	6 6 0		1839	49,333,588	4 10 0	2,840
1812	7,335,023	13 8 0		1840	8,182,162	13 11 0	11,984
1813	31,555,863	8 8 0		1841	35,078,187	6 6 0	3,808
1814	33,670,202	8 8 0		1842	40,746,360	4 8 10	0
1815	29,731,043	7 10 0		1843	32,023,661	6 0 9	3,136
1816	11,112,589	13 13 0		1844	33,677,623	7 3 0	29,904
1817	15,965,326	27 0 0		1845	37,922,262	6 10 0	81,312
1818	47,871,867	7 0 0		1846	50,704,025	5 0 0	367,696
1819	58,098,282	4 8 0		1847	45,134,365	3 10 0	164,752
1820	33,199,386	4 4 0		1848	44,343,985	2 15 0	43,120
1821	37,106,369	4 15 0		1849	16,650,915	7 10 0	43,118
1822	48,894,050	4 4 0		1850	48,537,669	3 10 0	725,648
1823	6,253,909	13 0 0		1851	27,042,996	6 10 0	51,744
1824	35,719,681	7 0 0		1852	51,102,494	4 5 0	34,608
1825	5,836,092	19 0 0		1853	31,751,693	11 11 0	4,742,528
1826	64,759,450	5 0 0		1854	9,877,126	20 0 0	13,330,480
1827	33,803,643	5 0 0
Sources:
"A Practical Treatise on Malting and Brewing" by William Ford, 1862, pages 288 - 290.
"Hops; their Cultivation, Commerce, and Uses in Various Countries" by P.L., Simmonds, 1877, page 129.
Note:
Production 1800-1845 caculated from hop duty paid.