early in the seventeenth century. In 1665 the country beer makers asked for
permission to bring their presumably weak beer into the towns of the
province, but this was denied. The pressure of declining markets fed compe
tition within the province and led to disputes among towns. Flushing brewers
turned to the States of Zeeland in 1751 to protest against new taxes in neigh
bouring Middelburg which gave brewers and beer merchants there an even
bigger advantage than one already created by generally lower tax rates on in
puts and sales''3. Middelburg was trying to expand the definition of imports to
include beer from any place other than breweries in the town itself. Competi
tion obviously increased in the face of a declining market for beer.
In Zeeland concern about imports was of long standing and the deteriora
tion of the market for beer increased efforts to protect local producers against
imports, even from Holland. The topic had come up in the sixteenth century
when Holland brewing prospered. To the continuing danger for Zeeland pro
ducers of beer from Holland in the eighteenth century was added beer from
Brabant and from England. In 1617 a dispute between Rotterdam and the
town of Zierikzee, the latter driving Rotterdam imports out by higher taxes,
led to threats of reprisals such as cutting off supplies of salt. Nothing seems
to have come of it and the higher taxes remained. In 1620 the brewers of
Zeeland asked the province to treat all Holland beer as foreign, thrown in
with English and German beer and subject to the same duties and levies. That
would have allowed high taxes and so would have protected them and con
served their industry. That went contrary to established practice, legislation,
and any efforts at conformity within the Republic. Nothing seems to have
come of the petition immediately but in 1694 and again in 1695 the province
of Holland asked-Zeeland to drop heavier taxes on Holland beer arguing the
greater charges were detrimental to the political union. The protection re
mained in place"1. Holland had discriminatory taxation of its own. Publicans
there from 1655 paid 11 stuivers/tun tax on beer of a value of 20 stuivers per
tun and 73 stuivers/tun on beer of a value of 40 stuivers/tun. A regulation of
the previous year appears to have placed a uniform 5 stuivers/lun charge on
beer brewed outside Holland but in the United Provinces which, therefore,
included beer from Zeeland. While the lax was a burden it was less than a
50% increase for beer of the lowest classification and of only some 7% for
beer of the most expensive classification. Brewers in Flushing in the middle
of the eighteenth century raised objections since lax changes in Holland
meant that beer from Zeeland among others faced a higher tax. A reform of
1749 set a tax rate of 70 stuivers plus 10% while for beer from Nijmegen,
Arnhem, Breda, and Zeeland there was a surchage of 38 stuivers/tun plus
10%. This was much less than the 250 stuivers/tun rate that foreign beer
faced but it was an increase for beer from Zeeland and undoubtedly a clear
sign of continuing discrimination against Zeeland beer in Holland65.
63. GAVI. Archieven der gilden: inv.nr. 134 [20 Feb.. 1751]; ZA, Arch. St.v.Z.: inv.nr. 3236 [20
September. 1633]. inv.nr. 3242 [14 January, 1665J.
64. GAR. Oud Archief, inv.nr. 2185: ZA. Arch. St.v.Z.: inv.nr. 3231 [16 March. 1620]. inv.nr. 3236
[30 March. 1629], inv.nr. 3246.427-428 1694. 1695])
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