largest market in Zeeland and possibly through the province on the way to Flanders. For Gouda, Flanders was always the largest market although some beer went to Zeeland, to Overijssel and across the North Sea to England18. Middelburg in 1448. 1449 and 1451 loaned money to different individuals to set up breweries in the town and brew beer for a minimum period1". That was a rare act for any government in the Low Countries. The town certainly expected more than just repayment of the loan. She expected a gain through increased revenue from beer taxes as well as greater employment and the re placement of imports from Holland. Some 90 years later Veere, in 1539, set up a protected brewing industry and promoted the development of local beer production. The lord of the town imported a brewer from Delft who under took to supply the needs of ships visiting the port, the local hospital, and lo cal consumers20. The presence of Zeeland breweries, as their quality im proved and their numbers grew, cut into sales by the Holland towns with large export industries. The exporters in major Holland centres in the middle of the sixteenth century faced another threat in Zeeland markets, that is im ports from Antwerp. From the 1540s beer imports at Antwerp fell as a per centage of local production. That meant a great potential loss to Holland ex porters since as late as 1542-1543 Antwerp imported over 11,500,000 litres of beer a year. To make it even worse, Antwerp began in the 1550s to export beer, largely to nearby markets and especially to those in Zeeland. In 12 months in 1559-1560 Antwerp sent out a little over 3,000,000 litres of beer, replacing beer that at least in part would have come from Holland. Alternate suppliers made customers in Zeeland more bold. They negotiated for higher quality or lower prices from their suppliers, whoever those suppliers were21. Middelburg, like other towns in Zeeland and the rest of the Low Countries, recognized the importance of the beer excise. In 1522 the town bought from its lord the right to levy and to raise such taxes, a right they exercised just six years later. In that case the income was to help defray the cost of building and repair of the town walls22. The share of income which the town of Mid delburg enjoyed from various taxes on beer declined and dramatically in the sixteenth century. In the 1440s and 1450s, like many towns in Holland, Mid delburg was getting more than half of total revenue from the excise on beer. By the 1460s decline had set in and by the following century it was rare for the proportion to get even close to 20%. The fall indicates more an expansion of sources of revenue than a decline in the income from taxes on beer con sumption. Even with the decline more than one out of every 10 pounds col lected in tax in the years before the Revolt came from the levy on beer drinkers. 18. Pinkse, Hei Concise kuitbier, 120-121; Linger, 'Economische omwikkeling', 60. 19. Kesteloo, Stadsrekeningen II (1888). 99; Unger, Bronnenvol.3. 99. nr. 3. 20. GAVe. inv.nr. 311: fols. 112v-l 13r. 21. GAVe. inv.nr. 311: fols. 97v-98r [1541]: H. Soly. *De brouwerijenondememing van Gilbert van Sclioonbeke (1552-1562)'. Revue Beige cle philologie et d'histoire, 46 (1968) 346-347. 1185-1186. 1200. 22. Unger, Bronnenvol.2, nrs. 50 and 126. 7

Tijdschriftenbank Zeeland

Archief | 1999 | | pagina 17