Dublin Porter Shipments to Great Britain 1905 - 1908

Guinness's dominationof Irish brewing is nothing new. Especially when it comes to Stout. Though there may have been Dublin rivals, they were brewing on a far smaller scale than Guinness.

For one simple reason: Guinness had penertrated the British market. Which meant they had a massively larger potential customer base than if their operations had been limited to Ireland.

Dublin Porter Shipments to Great Britain 1905 - 1908
Brewery	1905	1906	1907	1908
Guinness & Co.	604,818	650,981	670,503	687,486
Watkins, Jameson & Co.	38,544	39,482	36,542	36,176
D'Arcy & Son	23,493	27,789	23,472	21,947
Mountjoy Brewery	30,498	29,562	27,513	25,523
Other shippers	228	0	0	22,835
Total	697,581	747,813	758,030	793,965
Source:
The Brewers' Journal, vol. 45, 1909, page 8.

Shipments to Britain from the other three other Dublin breweries were declining while those of Guinness were increasing. Eventually the trade of the other breweries would dwindle to nothing.

As you can see in the more detailed table below, in 1908 about a third of Gunness sales were in Great Britaion, the other two thirds in Ireland. When WW I erupted, the proportion shipped to Britain had increased to 40%. It increased even further after WW I, exceeding 50% in 1920.

Though even in 1904 Guinness was selling more Extra Stout in Britain than in Ireland, where the majority of their sales was in the form of Porter. Guinness actively discouraged the shipment of its Porter to Britain because they were afraid of it being passed off as Extra Stout. At this point Extra Stout had an OG of 1075º and Porter 1060º.

Guinness sales 1904 - 1914
	Extra Stout		Porter		other	totals
Year	Britain	Ireland	Britain	Ireland	total	Britain	Ireland	FES/Export	total
1904	584,598	494,949	1,375	849,883	74,980	585,973	1,344,832	74,980	2,005,785
1905	601,553	503,096	1,538	858,243	97,520	603,091	1,361,339	97,520	2,061,950
1906	643,878	509,573	1,572	857,919	113,204	645,450	1,357,492	113,204	1,482,268
1907	678,902	521,583	1,137	858,433	116,459	680,039	1,380,016	116,459	2,176,514
1908	695,562	531,337	963	859,977	100,799	696,525	1,391,314	100,799	2,188,638
1909	706,229	560,104	810	879,584	115,596	707,039	1,439,688	115,596	2,262,323
1910	782,281	593,459	1,231	901,660	135,860	783,512	1,495,119	135,860	2,414,491
1911	825,604	616,099	1,738	913,439	146,242	827,342	1,529,536	146,242	2,503,122
1912	913,659	674,868	556	926,592	157,880	914,215	1,601,460	157,880	2,673,555
1913	1,022,077	736,563	276	930,173	139,150	1,022,353	1,666,735	139,150	2,828,243
1914	1,070,814	731,511	116	897,455	141,844	1,070,930	1,628,965	141,844	2,642,740
Source:
"A Bottle of Guinness please" by David Hughes, pages 276-279

Numbers, eh? What could be more fun? Yes, obviously certain things people do in private without clothes. but otherwise, what can beat the existential thrill of scraping back the dirt to reveal a fresh number hoard? And can I come up with a paragraph containing more question marks?