of the hard economic times. It is certain, though, that brewers' excise rose as
a share of price through the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century.
There were occasional reductions. Brewers and even towns often petitioned
for relief from the burden, but more typically the tax climbed. The cost of the
war against Spain was, of course, the most important factor in forcing up
taxes. Various governments from the 1580s on raised the rates. The increases
also made more of an issue out of tax evasion or tax exemptions offered by
governments. Evasion was always a problem and much of legislation was de
signed to attack the problem, leading in some cases to rather odd restrictions.
From 1547 at Veere it was illegal to go out in the street at night to sell beer.
The marking of barrels with symbols of the brewery where the beer was
made and the volume, designed to prevent fraud, could be used to commit
fraud. Middelburg beer sellers put Antwerp beer in English casks and sold it
as higher priced English beer, an act specifically outlawed in 1563". The
principal form of protection chosen by towns was setting favourable rates of
excise taxes. They could use those duties because of the elaborate system set
up in virtually every town to administer taxes. Town authorities wanted to get
as much as possible from the excises and to that end they set up a method of
collection which was complex and became even more so over time. Regula
tions abounded from all periods. They were of many types but almost invari
ably lengthy. The fear of fraud and the rules which that fear generated made
the methods of bringing in excise taxes a source of constant trouble for brew
ers and government alike.
The strict separation of beer making, beer transportation and beer selling,
something else dictated by law in a number of places such as Amsterdam in
1497, probably was one of the most effective devices used in all towns to de
crease fraud. By the early seventeenth century the prohibition of beer brew
ers, wholesalers and porters selling at retail was standard language in regula
tions in both Holland and Zeeland". Porters were the men who transported
the beer barrels from the brewery or beer warehouse to taverns or to homes.
Towns did not trust any participant in the chain of distribution, including the
beer porters. Towns worried constantly about collusion between brewers and
beer sellers. At Middelburg in 1528, for example, only wholesalers were al
lowed to deal with publicans, to stop the excise fraud that might otherwise
occur".
Brewers produced beers of different types and strengths. Tax collectors
tried, as time went on, to standardize those and to fix a name for each cate
gory of beer. That way it was easier to control prices and to assure the proper
tax was paid on each barrel. Al Middelburg in 1463 a minimum price was set
for imported Holland keitte. That was a defensive measure, an attempt to
lessen potential competition for local beer from the import. Middelburg in
32. GADo. Archief van de gilden: inv.nr. 931. 20 [1614]. De grafelijke lijd. inv.nr. 407; GAVe,
inv.nr. 311: fol. I36v [1547|: ZA. Arch. St.v.Z.: inv.nr. 322S [1587], [1587], [1588]: [1599], [1600]:
Unger, Bronnen, vol.3, nr. 797 [1563],
33. Breen, Rechtsbronnen der stad Amsterdam. 1497. 14: C. Cau el al.. Groot Placaalboekvol.1.
2048-2059.
34. Unger, Bronnenvol.2, nr. 127 [1528].
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