there were 23 breweries in Zeeland, 3 of them in Middelburg. All were small
with total employment of only 50. None sold beer outside the province and
many had only one worker or none in addition to the owner". In 1819 there
were 28 breweries. A consistent trend in the number of breweries failed to
develop through much of the nineteenth century because new breweries
opened and took advantage of positive changes in the economic and techni
cal climate, while old small ones closed. Brewing tended to migrate to the
larger towns as transportation improved, the introduction of railroads having
the greatest impact. In 1885 Zeeland had only 23 breweries, the same number
as in 1816. Many of the smaller breweries survived on making beer of low
quality and of a lower price than the new style pilsners of the recently opened
modern big breweries in Amsterdam and then later Rotterdam. Heineken,
Amstel and the Royal Netherlands Bavarian Beer Brewery all adopted me
chanical refrigeration, chemical control of production, pasteurization and
bottling so by the opening years of the twentieth century Zeeland brewers
simply could no longer compete. The industry which had always struggled
against disadvantages and which shrank to a small and insignificant contribu
tor to the provincial economy by 1795 gradually disappeared in the late nine
teenth century, overcome by the technical superiority and greater capital re
sources of breweries in Holland and for that matter also breweries in
Germany. The Zeeland industry was always small, never able to compete ef
fectively in wider markets, always at the mercy of neighbours with greater
resources. The marginal industry in Zeeland did hold on for many centuries,
struggling to meet part of the demand for beer in the towns and countryside
of the province. The survival of as many brewers as there were in as many
towns as there were is an indication of the resourcefulness of brewers in the
province in exploiting what few advantages they had and watching carefully
patterns of taxation and legislation in neighbouring jurisdictions to gain
whatever benefit they possibly could.
75. D. Damsma, J.M.M. de Meere and L. Noordegraaf, Statistieken van <le Nederlandse nijverheid
uit de eerste helft der 19e eeuw. Supplement. Rijks Geschiedkundige Publicatiën, Grote Serie 168.
(The Hague 1979) 80-103. 316-317.
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