Saturday 8 June 2013

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.

2 comments:

Ed said...

Tell 'em about the gambling Ron.

Ron Pattinson said...

Ed,

I almost forgot about that. Didn't Martyn do a post on it?