ABSTRACT
The art of beer brewing originated in northern Germany in the thirteenth century, and it spread rapidly to Holland and the southern Netherlands before reaching England in the early fifteenth century. Its introduction was a major landmark in the English economic landscape, spearheading not only a revolution in the brewing industry but also the coal industry. Until this period English brewers produced only ale, where only malt, water and yeast were used. Lacking any preservative, ale deteriorated rapidly, and meant that producers could not risk making large batches of drink. The short longevity of ale thus meant that production had to be carried out frequently in small scale, and was destined largely for local consumption rather than for distant markets. A large number of brewers was also necessary to supply domestic need, but these had few opportunities for amassing a great fortune. These bottlenecks in production were overcome with the introduction of beer which, brewed with the addition of hops, gave it unique qualities. To start with, beer could be stored for a much longer period, thanks to the natural preservatives contained in the hops. While ale went sour after two weeks, strong beer could be stored up to a year. Beer also transported better, with less chance of going off as a result of jostling, sloshing, unpredictable temperatures and other accidents of transport. * Longevity and transportability of beer subsequently transformed the brewing industry: brewers could now significantly expand their scale of production to take advantage of the economies of scale, widen their market by exporting their beers, and introduce mechanisation in production. By the early seventeenth century, brewing in England had been transformed from a small scale, humble and domestic (and female-dominated) craft into a large scale, capital-intensive, commercialised, and highly lucrative business. Production, along with wealth, became concentrated in few hands: in 13 80 when the population of London was less than 30,000 there were 1,000 brew houses in the city, by 1600 when the population had risen to some 200,000 people, there were only 83 ale and beer brewers.2 By this date, brewers had
become enormously wealthy and their company had emerged as a leading city guild.
