Monday 23 August 2021

Dutch barley supply

It's Sunday and I'm a bit pushed for time. I'm writing this between putting the roast in the oven and peeling the spuds. There won't be any time after dinner. That's earmarked for dozing in front of the telly with an Abt or two. Hence the slightly cheaty post.

I've found yet another treasure trove of information about Dutch brewing during WW II. I won't say stumbled across because I was pretty sure it was in the archives and I specifically went looking for it. It's the minutes of the committee meetings of the CBK, the Dutch brewers' organisation. It will take me weeks to trawl through it.

It's left with with a dilemma. Should I include it all in "Blitzkrieg!"? What was intended as just a page or two. Now its more than 20 pages and 9,000 words. Making the book a bit lopsided. I'm now considering spinning it off into another book. If only so I can finally publish "Blitzkrieg!". Which, other than the Dutch stuff, is finished. Let me know what you think.

Finally arriving at today's topic, When Germany invaded Poland, the Dutch government banned the malting of barley. They proposed releasing barley for malting, but only on a week by week basis, which seems pretty inefficient.

These are the rules for distribution proposed by the C.B.K. I'm struggling to find out what the N.A.C., N.M.C. and B.I.C.. It doesn't help that N.A.C. is a Dutch professional football team. If you know what any of these organisations was, let me know.

"VII. DISTRIBUTION OF BARLEY AND MALT.
As a preliminary principle for the distribution scheme for barley and malt, the following is concluded:

a. the N.A.C. buy the barley,
b. the C.B.K. buy the barley from the N.A.C., as much as possible at once for the whole year's requirements,
o. the price, varying with the quality, depends on the target price, the cleaning costs, etc.,
d. the quality is determined by the Nacobrew,
e. if necessary, storage is provided elsewhere than at dealers, malthouses and/or breweries,
f. supervision of the batches during storage is carried out centrally,
g. it is desirable that the N.M.C. release the barley for malting not from week to week but from month to month,
h. all barley is malted for hire, except what breweries turn into malt for themselves,
i. in order to obtain the cooperation of the malthouses for the system, breweries will only malt for hire after the commercial malthouses have obtained orders to their full capacity,
j. about this plan and about the charge for malting (for which f.2.50 per 100 K.G. is mentioned) consultations will be held with the malthouses,
k. the C.B.K. will with the involvement of the B.I.C. allocate to each brewery its share proportionally, taking into account as far as possible a brewery's preference for barley from a particular grower or trader or malt from a particular malthouse,
1. The basis for allocation is the beer excise duty paid by each brewery or the raw materials processed by each in 1938, the figures of which are submitted to the B.I.C. are known the difference is in the beer export, for which about 10% of the total deposited raw material is needed; the government wants to maintain exports for as long as possible and, moreover, it prefers to work with the B I.C.; for these reasons it is considered desirable to make distribution in proportion to the quantity of raw material deposited by each brewery in 1938,
m. should a brewery wish for less than its share, it remains liable for the greater amount; if wanted in this regard they will be informed before the assignment,
n. with the purchase of the NAC, payment will have to be made directly by the CBK, which must therefore receive the payments from the breweries in advance (if necessary, this includes financing by a malthouse in some cases); in addition to the price, the payment will also include the cost of malting, freight, insurance etc.,
o. consultation will be held with the Nacobrouw about the quality determination; the Nacobrouw, which has already declared itself to abstain from commercial activities, will have a meeting at the office of the Government Commissioner for Agriculture,
p. a proposal will be made to the N.A.C. and the N.M.C., who have requested it."
Minutes of the management of the CBK on 13th September 1939, held at the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, document number Document 31121-1, pages 414 - 415.


1 comment:

Daniel Boisvert said...

Well, the Dutch data could be in a separate book of its own (Dutch!) or compiled with data from other countries from the same time period (Allies!). I'm eager to get my hands on the book that will fill the gap between Armistice and Austerity