CHAPTER IV

.

MODERN HISTORY OF BEER.

From the account already given, it will be seen that beer not only took an early hold on the affections of the people, but kept its position wherever it was introduced. It is now well established in every civilized country and plays so important a part in the economy of nations that a review of the light in which it is regarded by different governments cannot fail to be both interesting and useful.

In Germany the state uses every possible means to provide good, wholesome beer for the people. It is the habitual beverage of most of the population, used by them at their meals and their places of amusement, cheering but not intoxicating, and rendering them temperate, industrious, healthy and contented, a people whose bravery is beyond question, and whose peaceable yet progressive qualities tend to make the nation powerful, and its government respected at home and abroad. And yet an advance by the government of half a cent a quart on the price of beer has in years not long passed caused a serious riot. Cheap, wholesome beer is considered a necessity of life, and the attempt to increase its cost an interference with the primary rights of the community.

In Austro-Hungary, too, for many years government supervision has secured the production of pure beer, which is sold at a very moderate price. Some of the breweries are very large and the product is by many held to be unsurpassed in quality. That of Vienna and Pilsen, in

## particular, is universally known and esteemed. Beer is thoroughly the

national drink, and the beer gardens of Vienna are the resort of all classes, from the Emperor down to his private soldiers.

The most important men of the empire have extensive breweries, and among the great Austro-Hungarian brewers we find such names as Anton Dreher of Schwechat near Vienna, Count Arco Valley of Zell, Upper Austria, Count Arco Zinneburg of Kaltenhausen, Count Thurn Valsassina of Sorgendorf, and in Bohemia Count Thun Hohenstein of Alt Benatek, His Majesty the Emperor Franz Josef, Prince Carl Hohenzollern, Prince Trautmansdorf, Prince Josef Mansfeld, Prince J. A. Schwartzenberg, Prince Max Thurn Taxis, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Rudolf Count von Schoteck and many others.

A correspondent says: “At Trieste the drinking of beer is universal; from infancy to age light wine and beer are the common beverages.” He states that on Saturday night a pretty large number of laboring people are “jolly drunk,” but not savage drunk. The latter condition is unknown except among English and American sailors visiting the port. Among the better classes no instance is known of a merchant, lawyer, physician, shop-keeper, or master-mechanic becoming an inebriate and gradually losing position, prosperity and business, and sinking into a drunkard’s grave. Sometimes an Englishman or American has ruined himself by the use of spirits—not of wine or beer.

Holland has brewed good beer for centuries, and though this country has been better known as a producer of gin, the national beverage is certainly beer. Professors Tilamus and Swingar of Amsterdam, and the Secretary of the “Netherlands Society for the Abolition of Spirituous Drinks,” say that gin drinking is no longer respectable, and they recommend beer as a daily beverage. The beer gardens of Amsterdam and Rotterdam are very widely known. Good bands are provided and people of all ranks congregate to sip beer, smoke, talk, or listen to the music. On his first visit to these places the writer made careful inquiries as to the consumption of gin and other spirits, and was agreeably surprised to learn that their use was practically confined to the lowest classes and that beer was the common beverage. To find a drunken man it was necessary to go to the docks and wharves, among the Irish and American sailors. Nine-tenths of the gin manufactured is exported to the United States, and most of its use at home is for medical purposes.

The little kingdom of Belgium ranks next Bavaria as a beer consuming country. There are three kinds of beer—Mars, a light beer and generally used by the laboring class, Lambic, strong and light, and the Faro, a mixture of Mars and Lambic. Brussels and Antwerp have some of the finest beer gardens in the world, which furnish music to their patrons equal to the best, and the general habits of the people are temperate. Drunkenness is hardly found even among the lower classes.

Spain even is becoming a beer-drinking country. The beer formerly consumed there was imported from England, Germany and Austria, and in 1869 all the breweries in the country did not produce 500,000 liters, equal to 132,062 gallons, while the returns of the year 1878 show a production of over 4,750,000 liters, or 1,254,594 gallons—an astonishing increase in a wine producing country—and the beer brewed at the Santa Barbara brewery at Madrid is taking the lead of the imported article.

Sweden and Norway also recognize the necessity of providing a wholesome stimulant for the people, and for more than a hundred and fifty years their respective governments have given attention to the matter. Not long ago patents for the manufacture of ardent spirits, which had long been held among the nobility, were revoked, and an attempt made to secure temperance through the more common use of malt liquors. Mr. George Hayward, then proprietor of the celebrated Lion Brewery at London, England,[15] was engaged by the government to superintend the introduction of improved beer in Sweden, and the experiment proved a thorough success. As beer increased drunkenness diminished, and both government and people have recognized the benefits of malt liquors. According to figures lately furnished by Dr. Ellis Sodenbladh of the Swedish statistical bureau, beer brewing has attained the position of a leading industry in that country. The annual product exceeds twenty-six million gallons, and this result is largely due to an increased tax on spirits and the remission of all taxation on beer, which may now be fairly considered the national beverage.

[15] Mr. Hayward died a short time ago at Albany, N. Y.

Denmark formerly consumed great quantities of ardent spirits, the amount used in proportion to the population being even greater than in the prohibitory state of Maine. The introduction of the excellent beer made by Jacobsen at Carlsberg brought about an entire change. Beer is now the drink of the country and public feeling is strongly opposed to the use of whisky. The people have become remarkable for quiet and good order, and the police magistrates of the larger cities, as Copenhagen and Elsinore report that for a long time no cases of murder, homicide or theft brought before them have been traced to the influence of strong drink. Arrests for street disorder are very rare and chiefly confined among the foreign seamen. The consumption of beer is about twenty gallons annually to the individual, and this amount seems to produce only favorable effects, as the people are a strong, hardy race with an average longevity far above that of the United States. The advantages of all kinds that have followed the general introduction of beer are very remarkable.

In Russia, a commission was some time ago appointed to investigate the question of drunkenness in the empire. The use of strong ardent spirits had been almost universal. Drunkards were not to be reckoned by individuals or even families. Whole districts were plunged in habits of brutal intoxication and this national pest demoralized the armies, filled poor-houses and hospitals, the lunatic asylums and the prisons.

As a result of the labors of this commission, and in accordance with the unanimous report of its members, the Czar has recently conferred very valuable privileges on those who establish breweries in his dominions. The object being to secure for the people good beer at a low price, all taxes on beer and articles used in its manufacture have been abolished, while the use of ardent spirits is still further checked by the imposition of heavy duties on all introduced to the country, and severe taxes on its manufacture or sale; and[16] whenever the crop of barley turns out to be light, the government prohibits exporting the same.

[16] Owing to a light crop the Russian government has prohibited the export of barley for the current year, 1879.

In Greece, breweries are springing up about Athens and the Piræus, and all over the Levant and the neighboring islands, and the _ek krithon methu_ (barley wine) of olden times is going to be the ordinary beverage of the people instead of the rather strong wines that the country produces.

In France during the reign of Napoleon III., it was discovered that the ardent spirits most in use were so adulterated as to produce serious injury to consumers apart from that which always attends the free use of these liquors. Spirits were used to a much greater extent than could be justified on any sound principle. The Emperor, whose practical judgment was excellent in matters not immediately affecting his own ambition, offered inducements to English and German brewers to establish themselves in the country and the consumption of beer was increased with very advantageous results. The change has already gone so far as to alarm the wine merchants, and according to the “British Mercantile Gazette” the consumption in Paris alone now reaches one hundred million _liter_ bottles _per annum_ or nearly half a pint a day to every Parisian, which is not bad for a beginning. The beer used, however, is still chiefly of foreign manufacture, the lager beer coming chiefly from Vienna and Bavaria, and the ale from Alsopp and Bass. Some American brewers of New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis received gold medals at Paris for the excellence of their beer, and are now shipping considerable quantities to that place.

Americans who have lately been in France must usually have been surprised to notice how _bogk_ (lager beer) is already the common beverage in the fashionable _cafés_ of the chief cities.

Some leading French savants trace a direct connection between the free use of beer and the national greatness and indomitable personal courage of their opponents in the late war, and hope by the development of the brewing interest to add to the traditional virtues of Frenchmen some of those displayed in the neighboring empire. The notion may be rather fine spun, but the actual benefit of the development of a home industry in beer will be none the less, and it cannot be doubted that their end will be at least partially attained, though perhaps not in so direct a fashion as they suppose. Monsieur Lunier has just brought before the French Academy of Medicine, some very interesting statistics on the use of fermented and other liquors. According to him, wine is still the national drink. The consumption of cider is diminishing, although still large, and brandy is much used to facilitate the digestion of cider. The more cider, the more brandy. The quantity of beer used, has considerably increased in most of the Departments, and he proves conclusively that most cases of accidental death in consequence of excess, occur in the departments where there is most drinking of spirits, that apprehensions for drunkenness are five times as numerous in these Departments as in those where wine is chiefly used, that drunkenness in the beer-drinking regions is hardly known, and that alcoholic insanity is almost everywhere in proportion to the consumption of ardent spirits. The only exceptions are La Vendée and Charente Inferieure where they drink only white wines, but use them in immoderate quantities.

French brewers are now engaged in forming an association and the first meeting has been announced to take place at Toulouse, in the late autumn of the present year (1879). The _Industriel de Lyon_ speaks of the matter as follows:

“In consequence of their number, and as representing forty-two departments, the brewers who should support this association are most influential. They would, by means of combination, be able to properly protect their important industry, and struggle against errors of the past, such as excise regulations, octroi, etc. Besides the meetings of the Syndicate, whether held at Toulouse or Lyons, might take up general economical questions of interest to its members, and also deal with the fabrication of beer, malting, and the scientific phenomena, which are more numerous and complex than is imagined. Brewing, it is further asserted, is an industry of the future. Beer is a drink of progress on account of its refreshing and especially nutritive qualities. To produce beer cheap, appetizing to the eye, and agreeable to the stomach, is the program which the brewers of the South have in view, and which they must strive energetically to carry out if they wish to compete at all successfully with the German beers. The phylloxera is not an eternal enemy. Sooner or later science will neutralize its effects.

“In the South of France, therefore, the opinion is held that the greatest care should be given to the production of beer. Besides, people in the South do not drink the good wine which they produce; they export it. Money is more valuable to them than good wine. Inferior wine, however, remains, and is consumed to a great extent. We are of opinion that beer would offer to all considerable advantages; and therefore it is desirable that the brewing industry in the South of France should be developed in the fullest possible manner.”

In England about the year 1833 the use of intoxicating liquors had increased to such a point that government applied itself to the discovery of some means of diminishing the consumption. The Duke of Wellington, whose long career as a soldier on the continent and elsewhere had taught him the beneficial influence of beer, and who saw clearly the amount of misery and degradation caused among his countrymen by the use of distilled liquors, introduced while Prime Minister, the well known “Beer Bill.” Its passage was urged distinctly on the ground that a free consumption of beer would greatly diminish the use of spirits. The Duke himself strongly advocated the bill and instanced the continental beer-drinking countries as the happiest and most temperate on the globe.

On the other hand the so-called temperance men appeared in large deputations to urge (against all reason) that whatever beer might be consumed would be in addition to the previous consumption of ardent spirits and not in place of it, or any part of it, that intoxication would be increased in a ratio correspondent to the amount of beer used, and in short that the proposed plan of reform was much like an attempt to quench fire by pouring on oil. The bill, however, was at last passed by a large majority and has proved very successful. The consumption of beer has largely increased, distilled liquors are less used, and, notwithstanding the assertions of some over-zealous partisans of total abstinence, we can prove by statistics carefully collected that the amount of drunkenness in the country began to decrease immediately after the passage of the bill. William E. Gladstone, the great English statesman who, in the year 1868-9, carried through Parliament an act intended to promote the cause of temperance by cheapening wine and beer and making their sale part of the business of restaurants and confectioners’ shops, wrote a short time ago as follows: “I am opposed to coffee and tea palaces as I believe they are more deteriorating than beer shops. The stimulating properties of coffee or tea are greater and more injurious than those of malt liquors.”

The course advocated by the Duke of Wellington and Mr. Gladstone has been fully justified by the results. Drunkenness has decreased and breweries have multiplied. The measure of advantage is to be found in the increase of large breweries whose product is distributed through many channels, for these furnish what is to take the place of the ardent spirit formerly consumed when one was away from home or wanted a change from the home-brewed ale to which he was accustomed. They also attract the favor of the poorer classes because they furnish so much more in bulk and nutritive power at the same or a less price.

There are, however, many small breweries, such as those attached to country inns or to private houses. Some breweries also confine their business to supplying families with pale and table ales, stout or porter, in small barrels of four and a half, nine, and eighteen gallons. The number of breweries in Great Britain—aside from those which are strictly for private use—is, according to official returns, twenty-six thousand, two hundred and fourteen, which it will be seen is about nine times the number in the United States. The cost of good ale is about one shilling sterling a gallon.

[Illustration: M. T. BASS, ESQ. MP.

THE GREAT BURTON-ON-TRENT BREWER, ENGLAND.]

It is worthy of notice that the brewers of England are distinguished for a wise generosity and public spirit, and such men as Charington, Fox, Meux, Alsopp, Hanbury, Buxton, Mann, Truman, Guinness, Walker and Bass,[17] will be long remembered for the magnificent charities that ennoble and perpetuate their names. To a greater or less degree the same characteristic comes to light in every country where beer is established as the popular beverage. Jacobsen, a brewer of Copenhagen, before his death set aside $280,000 to found a laboratory of scientific research. A part of the money is to be spent in keeping up the laboratories attached to his brewery, in which chemical and physiological researches are carried on with a view to establish as completely as possible a scientific basis for brewing and malting.

[17] Michael Thomas Bass, the senior member of Parliament for Derby, is best known as the largest brewer in the world. He is now over eighty years old, and has been engaged in the brewery business founded by his grandfather for about sixty-two years. He was educated at the Buxton Grammar School, and has supplemented this early instruction by a course of reading that leaves him not at all behind many University men in the matter of scholarly attainments. He has always been noted for the efficient discharge of his public and private duties, and has for more than thirty years represented the old town of Derby as senior member of Parliament. His public and private gifts have been frequent and munificent, the last of importance being a free library for the town of Derby.

The generous juice of barley, seems to draw out the more kindly and human feelings of all who have their dealings in it. Can any such thing be said of distilled liquors?

The late Khedive of Egypt, who has done more for the advancement of that country than any other ruler since the time of the Pharaohs, perceived the advantages to be gained by the introduction of beer, and granted very valuable privileges to a company of Swiss brewers, whose establishment is now in full and successful operation at Cairo. The consumption is chiefly in the cities which are largely inhabited by Europeans, generally disposed to drink beer if it is good and readily attainable, but sure to use stronger drinks if the beer is wanting, and perhaps, from the circumstance of residence at a distance from home, more apt to use any intoxicating liquor to excess.

Japan, a kingdom hardly known to us twenty-five years ago, and now recognized as one of the most highly civilized in the world, has thus far suffered very little from intoxicating drinks. Native stimulants have been used, and in some cases have proved as injurious as strong whisky, though perhaps more strictly harmful to the individual, and less so to his family and the community. The people are by nature and education gentle and polite, and their social manners are in many

## particulars a lesson to Europeans. They are usually temperate in all

things, happy and contented. The Mikado, however, wisely considering that in the growing intercourse of Japan with foreign countries, a taste for ardent spirits can hardly fail to be developed, unless some counteracting influence be at work, has decided to foster the erection of beer breweries, and thus avert as far as possible an impending danger, while at the same time he gives his subjects an innocent and refreshing beverage. With this view, the representatives of Japan, now in Germany, have been directed to enter into arrangements with well-known brewers, for the erection of large breweries in Yokohama, Tokio, Saga, Nagasaki and Shidz-u-o-ka.

The Shah of Persia also, is so far convinced of the advantages of beer, as to have made arrangements during his last visit to Vienna, for

## parties there to undertake its introduction in his kingdom.

In Turkey, there are at Constantinople six breweries with an annual product of about one hundred and twenty thousand gallons. The hops are imported from Germany, but the other materials are supplied by the country. After the island of Cyprus passed from Turkish to English rule, it is worthy of notice that the first shipment by the _Thessalia_ was fifty barrels of beer, a shipment well illustrating English national habits.

The condition of the beer trade in the United States being part of the general subject of this book, and especially illustrated in the chapter under the heading “The Condition and Prospects of the Beer Trade,” and also in the list of breweries given in Appendix C, needs no remark here.

##