Not everyone was subject to beer taxes. There were exemptions and those
were a regular source of friction. Exemptions dated from the Middle Ages
but continued on through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, changes
being made now and again which caused only greater confusion. In 1588 at
Middelburg there were complaints from the tax farmers. Soldiers and those
working on repairs to the fort in the town had been exempt from taxes in the
past, but ordinances had recently changed and the military officer in charge
was asked to see that excise did get paid but the farmers were having trouble
getting the money. In Middelburg foreign merchants like those from Andalu
sia, England, Scotland, and Venice got concessions at different times from
the government, including tax free beer for their own consumption. Many in
dividuals and institutions enjoyed tax freedom including the towns them
selves, civic officials, hospitals, and religious organizations. In Zeeland un
der 1637 ordinances guilds, schools and other similar institutions still had to
pay tax on beer, but they paid a publican tax and were forgiven any other
taxes such as excises. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Admi
ralty of Zeeland and English and. Scottish merchants in the province got their
beer tax free25. There was a reduced tax of just 12 stuivers/tun on beer con
sumed by shippers while travelling. If the ship was anchored or permanently
tied up at a wharf and individuals lived on board they paid the full consump
tion rates, commonly mentioned as in excise legislation as at Middelburg in
1547. On voyages the shippers were subject to the lower rate, that to con
vince them to buy beer from local producers before sailing off to some other
province or country. Fishermen, even in the fifteenth century, did not have to
pay tax in Zeeland so long as the beer was drunk on board, but those fisher
men were reminded that the beer was not to find its way into the cellars of
townspeople215. Fear of fraud was always present.
Promotion of brewing at least at Middelburg seems to have worked since
through the sixteenth century and first years of the seventeenth, new brew
eries continued to be built in the town, in one case using an empty piece of
land. Flushing brewing too saw expansion, seemingly with some help from
town legislation but also probably with help from the rapid expansion of
Dutch trade in the seventeenth century. Flushing was a port and probably en
joyed some of the advantages of places like Rotterdam which also saw brisk
growth in brewing in the years around 1600. The growth in trade would help
to explain why Vlissingen had 10 breweries in 1634. Lesser towns in the
Netherlands typically had breweries in the sixteenth and early seventeenth
century. They would be of the same size as those in the big exporting towns
in Holland but just in smaller numbers. That was certainly true in Zeeland. In
1484 Middelburg may have produced as much as 1,000,000 litres of beer,
25. ZA, Arch. St.v.Z., inv.nr. 3228, 4 June, 1588, e.g. inv.nr. 3246, 476 [24 November, 1691]: C.
Qui el* ah, Grool Placaalboek, vol.1. 2048-2059; Unger, Bronnenvol.1, nr. 264. 6, vol.3, nrs. 443
[before 1512], 447 [1512], 590, 2f 1541] and 753[1558].
26. Engels, De geschiedenis der belastingen, 99; Hallema en Emmens, Het bier en zijn brouwers,
103; E.M.A. Timmer, De generale brouwers van Holland. Een bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der
brouwnering in Holland in de 17de18de en 19de eeuw (Haarlem 1918) 5-7; Unser. Bronnen, vol.2,
nrs. 154 and 163 [1552], vol.3, nr. 214, 4 [1455] and 529. 4 [1530].
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