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.
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