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