While Zeeland had a comparative disadvantage in the supply of water it had
a comparative advantage in its location as a potential centre for the trade in
beer. Zeeland might have seemed a good candidate as a centre of consump
tion of imports itself since Middelburg had 8,000 residents in 1300 making it
larger than the Holland towns of Amsterdam which had perhaps 1,000, Lei
den with 3,000 and Dordrecht with 5,0002. They were all smaller than their
counterparts in Flanders such as Bruges with some 40,000 inhabitants and
nearby Ypres with 30,000. After about 1370 the count of Holland and Zee-
land did try to promote the carriage of beer along inland waterways in the
two counties. In August of 1403. for example, Count Albert gave Hambur
gers freedom from tolls in Holland for fifteen years. There was still a fee due
for each 64 barrels imported but they paid no more than 1% in tolls as they
passed through his lands. His avowed goal was to keep the trade in beer fun
nelling through Friesland, Holland and Zeeland* and in part at least he suc
ceeded. A sizeable proportion of German beer coming from Amsterdam and
headed for towns in western Flanders probably passed through Zeeland wa
ters. A toll levied in Zeeland of 1444 along the Scheldt River still included
beer imported from the East and the levy was one-third less than the duly to
be paid on other beers including Holland beers. So German imports may
have enjoyed a slight tax advantage by that time over Holland beer, at least if
it was brought by sea and up the Scheldt so avoiding dues charged on inland
waterways4.
Though efforts to draw the beer trade to Zeeland had mixed success Mid
delburg became already in the fourteenth century the import centre in the
Netherlands for wine. It was a position the Zeeland metropolis would hold
through the eighteenth century. Dordrecht in Holland was the port for Rhine
wine, the natural advantage of the port being supplemented by government
regulation. From 1304 the count of Holland required that wine stay in the
town 14 days before being allowed to move on, a term shortened to eight
days in 1342s. The presence of abundant quantities of wine at Dordrecht gave
the drink a distinct advantage and so it played a more important role in con
sumption than beer. The same may well have applied in Middelburg where
the presence of French wines offered an alternative drink. After cloth the sec
ond most important trade good at Middelburg was wine. It already had a
prominent role in commerce of the town in the early thirteenth century. Wine
even received mention in the 1217 privilege which gave Middelburg town
status. There is evidence that Middelburgers had continuing commercial rela-
2. P. Bairoch, J. Batou and P. Chèvre, The population of European cities. Data hank and short sum
mary of results (Geneva 1988) 53.
3. F.C. Berkenvelder, "Frieslands handel in de lale middeleeuwen'. Economisch Historisch Jaar-
hoek 29 (1963) 166-167; Bing, Bierhrauerei, 226; K. Höhlbaum, K. Kunze, W. Stein et al. (eds.),
Hansisches Urkundenbuch (Halle, Weimar and Leipzig 1876-1916) vol. 5, nrs. 585 and 698.
4. B ing, Bierhrauerei, 219, 227-228; Unger, Tol van Iersekeroord10-11, 14.
5. B. van Rijswijk, Geschiedenis van het Dordtsche stapelrecht (The Hague 1900) 20. 36; G. Sle-
fke, Ein Stadiisches Exportgewerhe des Spatmittelalters in seiner Enlfaltung und ersten Bliite. Uitter-
suchungen zur Geschichte der Hamburger Seehrauerei des 14. Jahrhunderts (Hamburg 1979) xxiii-
xxxiv. 58-60.
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