Scottish beer exports to England 1785 - 1820

Government sticking its nose into people's business. Isn't it great? Because it's left behind all sorts of useful documents. And statistics. Lots and lots of those. Regulation and taxation. Wonderful, in terms of leaving detailed records behind.

One such document is the succinctly-titled "Report from the Select Committee on Petitions Complaining of the Additional Duty on Malt in Scotland". It's mostly full of Scotsmen moaning about the level of taxation on bigg (a barley variant grown in Scotland). But the appendices have some handy tables, both for the brewing and distilling industries.

I was fascinated to learn that, while bigg gave a significantly lower yield than barley when used in brewing, there was almost no differnce when used for making whisky.

But I don't want to discuss bigg, however intriguing it might be, today. As you may have twigged from the title, Scottish beer exports to England are the theme. No, don't thank me. It's my duty to throw a few handfulls of numbers into your faces a few times a week.

As you can see, Scottish exports got off to a slow start, only once exceeding 1,000 barrels in the 18th century. Ten years into the 19th century, and they were around 10,000 barrels a year. Still not enormous, but a nice source of extra income for the brewers involved.

It's handy that separate figures are given for Ale, Beer and Porter. Because it's clear how the Scottish niche became Ale after 1810. That fits in with William Younger shipping his Edinburgh Ale to London. It's a pity the figures don't continue further into the 19th century. I would expect that the quantity of Ale sent to England continued to increase.

Here's the table:

Scottish beer exports to England 1785 - 1820 (barrels)
year	Ale	Beer	Porter	total number of barrels exported from Scotland to England	number of barrels returned to England, not inclded in the preceding columns
1785	108.75	64.25	55.5	228.5	60
1786	153.5	83.5	10.5	247.5	1.25
1787	92	133.5	321	546.5	0
1788	107	52.5	322	481.5	81
1789	74.75	42.75	124	241.5	159.5
1790	188.25	131.75	87	407	150
1791	181.5	119.25	424.5	725.25	0
1792	190.5	267.75	227.5	685.75	9
1793	115.25	57.5	178	350.75	25.5
1794	266.25	12.5	521	799.75	180
1795	153.5	27	319	499.5	70.5
1796	478.25	244.75	348.5	1071.5	187.5
1797	523.75	138.5	149.5	811.75	403.5
1798	279.25	189	196.75	665	391.5
1799	402.5	131	245.5	779	2205
1800	290.75	51	136.5	478.25	1531.5
1801	453.5	1,375.25	470.5	2,299.25	18
1802	363.25	2,107.50	384	2,854.75	289.5
1803	563.25	2,898.25	123	3,584.50	161.75
1804	733.5	2,580	265.25	3,578.75	159
1805	1,008.25	2,153.50	508.25	3,670	372
1806	1,231	3,661	727.5	5,619.50	321.75
1807	2,496.25	3,361.25	1279	7,136.50	217.5
1808	2,943.50	3,377	927.5	7,248	94.5
1809	2,971.50	4,417.50	1015	8,404	369
1810	4,872.75	4,084	1,953.75	10,910.50	228
1811	6,616.50	1,208	3194	11,018.50	154.5
1812	5,659.50	225	972.5	6,857	90
1813	4,822.75	170	1122.5	6,115.25	373.5
1814	5,950.75	328	188.75	6467.5	443.25
1815	7,011	210.75	562.5	7,784.25	804
1816	9,144.75	65.25	250	9,460	1176
1817	11,896.50	30	157.5	12,084	687
1818	15,984.50	44.5	513.5	16,542.50	289.5
1819	11,475	139.5	456.5	12,071	480
1820	10,094.75	63.25	282	10,440	1,411.50
Source:
"Report from the Select Committee on Petitions Complaining of the Additional Duty on Malt in Scotland", 1821, page 87. part of "Selection of reports and papers of the House of Commons, Volume 15: Malting, Brewing and Distillation"