Indian breweries in 1889

We're back in India again. With another lot of numbers. I'd like to claim that I've justt found them, but in fact I published them in 2010. I'd forgotten all about them, to be honest. That's what happens when you post as often as I do. No way I can remember all my posts.

Not that I'm just blandly repeating a former post. I've fiddled the numbers into a table and then fiddled with them some more to bring out their full value. I hope you appreciate the effort.

You can see that there were breweries all over India, from Ceylon in the south to Rawalpindi in the north. In all there were 25 breweries in India in 1889, up from 21 in 1881*. Between 1881 and 1889 production rose from 2,448,711 gallons (68,020 barrels) to 5,165,138 gallons (143,476 barrels), so more than doubled**.

It might look as if brewing was booming in India, but that wasn't the case. The growth all took place in the 1880's and after that production levelled off at 5 to 6 million gallons (139,000 to 167,000 barrels) per year***.

The reason for this plateauing is probably pretty simple: market saturation. The breweries only really sold to Europeans, whoi were only a small fraction of India's population. In fact, it was even more limited than that, with the majority of Indian-brewed beer being sold to the government for the use of British troops. Of the 7.6 million gallons of beer available in 1889 (imports and local production combined) 3.8 million gallons were sold to the government. About exactly 50%.

Here's a table withe the output per brewery:

Indian breweries in 1889
Brewery	location	output (gallons)	output (barrels)
The Murree Brewery Co.	Murree	1,148,949	31,915
The Murree Brewery Co.	Rawalpindi	205,632	5,712
The Murree Brewery Co.	Ootacamund	336,558	9,349
The Murree Brewery Co.	Bangalore	267,408	7,428
The Murree Brewery Co.	Quetta
The Murree Brewery Co.	Ceylon
Meakin & Co.	Poona	501,816	13,939
Meakin & Co.	Kasauti	450,000	12,500
Meakin & Co.	Chakrata
Meakin & Co.	Darjiling
Meakin & Co.	Dalhousie
Meakin & Co.	Ranikhet
Dyer & Co.	Lucknow	340,038	9,446
Dyer & Co.	Mandalay	232,804	6,467
Dyer & Co.	Solon	133,272	3,702
Mackinnon & Co.	Mussoorie	183,591	5,100
Orown Brewery Co.	Mussoorie	411,183	11,422
Naini Tal Brewery Co.	Naini Tal
total (of figures listed)		4,211,251	116,979
total		5,165,138	143,476
Source:
"A dictionary of the economic products of India, Volume 5" by Sir George Watt, 1891, pages 126-127.

You can see that the three largest brewing companies owned several breweries. Between them, the Murree Brewery, Meakin and Dyer owned 17 of the 25 breweries in India. Their share of the output was even greater than that:

 

Indian beer output by brewing group in 1889
	output (barrels)	% of total
The Murree Brewery Co.	54,404	37.92%
Meakin & Co.	26,439	18.43%
Dyer & Co.	19,614	13.67%
Mackinnon & Co.	5,100	3.55%
Orown Brewery Co.	11,422	7.96%
total (for 5 breweries)	116,979	81.53%
total output	143,476
Source:
"A dictionary of the economic products of India, Volume 5" by Sir George Watt, 1891, pages 126-127.

The top three accounted for about 70% of output, the top five 81%. It's clear that the industry was highly concentrated. The brewery in Murree alone was responsible for almost a quarter of Indian beer production.

Now wasn't that fascinating. I wonder if I've any other similar numbers lying asround?





* "A dictionary of the economic products of India, Volume 5" by Sir George Watt, 1891, page 126.
** "A dictionary of the economic products of India, Volume 5" by Sir George Watt, 1891, page 126.
*** Aberdeen Journal - Saturday 15 April 1911, page 9; Sheffield Independent - Friday 06 September 1895, page 6.