Protection of brewing in Zeeland and throughout the Low Countries took
many forms. Governments usually used the structure of taxes on beer and
brewing to pursue preservation and promotion of their own industries. Taxes
on beer were common, not just in Zeeland, from the early Middle Ages. By
the fifteenth century distinction between production taxes to be paid by the
brewers and consumption taxes to be paid by publicans or those drinking at
home was a common occurrence, though the collection of the two might be
combined so it could be hard to distinguish them. At Middelburg, a letter on
excise taxes of 1325 laid down what was to be taxed and among the items
were wine and beer, wine vinegar and beer vinegar. Locally brewed beer paid
4 grooten per barrel each time beer got brewed. The brewing trade is one of
the very few specifically mentioned in the document. Beer was divided for
purposes of taxation into that brewed in Middelburg, within Walcheren, from
Hamburg and Ommelanclsch or foreign beer, the last being from Baltic towns
like Wismar and Liibeck. Very expensive joopenbier. mostly from Gdansk
and beer from Duisberg also got separate mention. There are apparently no
other documents from the fourteenth century about the brewing industry
which indicates that the government was interested above all in the tax in
come which beer could and did generate". In 1446 the town increased the
beer excise by 6 grooten per barrel and so increased the income from the tax
by £250, indicating total sales of 10,000 barrels or something on the order of
1,250,000 litres per year. The estimate depends on an accurate figure for the
size of the barrel and that is difficult to establish. The beer excise was a cate
gory in the Middelburg town accounts from the late fourteenth century and
the income to the town from the tax rose over the long term, even without the
sizeable jump in the rate in 1446. While in 1366-1367 beer excise brought
£445, in 1449 it brought in £864. In addition the town got a fee whenever
any brewer set up a new brewery. Excise taxes in the fifteenth century were
urban taxes, though in Zeeland the count did claim the right to 10% of the in
come from town excises on wine, beer and other goods12. The excise taxes
through the ensuing centuries would be a constant source of difficulty be
tween brewers and governments throughout the Low Countries. Zeeland was
no exception. Finding the correct level of tax was a small part of the prob
lem. Administering the collection of the tax proved a productive field for bu
reaucratic experiment. An essential part of legislation was restrictions to
guarantee that all excise taxes due on beer were in fact paid in full. Middel
burg imposed rules insisting that no beer be sold without paying excise in the
mid fifteenth century" and that applied to beer made locally and imported
beer. The structure of taxation indicates that by the fifteenth century Zeeland
had a brewing industry, one which was growing and which presumably was
sophisticated enough to produce beer of competitive quality. Production fig
ures are extremely rare but the industry seems to have advanced very slowly
11Unger, 'Economische ontwikkeling', 50-52, 60.
12. Hallema en Emmens, Het bier en zijn brouwers. 43; Kesteloo. Stadsrekeningen I. (1883) 177,
179, 235; Unger, Bronnen, vol. 2. nr. 108. 1.
13. Unger, Bronnen, vol. 1, nr. 65 and 67.
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