In 1585, there were twenty-six brewers in London and Westminster, who brewed in that year 648,960 barrels of beer, and, six years after, they exported 24,000 barrels of beer to the Low Countries and Dieppe. In 1643, the first excise duty was imposed on beer. In 1722, the brewers stored their beer to keep it mellow, for the first time, and sold it to all house-keepers to be retailed at three-pence a pot—holding over a pint. In 1869, 500,000 barrels of beer, valued at £1,800,000, were exported from London to foreign places, being one-fourth of the total amount that was exported during the same time from other ports in England.
British India took 201,000 barrels, Australia and New Zealand, 148,000 barrels, China, 35,000 barrels, Cape of Good Hope, 15,000, British West Indies, 30,000 barrels, Spain took 209 barrels, Brazil, 15,000 barrels, Russia, 6,000, and France 7,000 barrels.
Barclay and Perkins employ a capital of £2,000,000 annually in their trade, and 300 huge horses, brought from Flanders, at a cost of from £60 to £100 each. These horses consume 9,000 quarter hundreds of oats, beans, or other grain, 900 tons of clover, and 290 tons of straw for litter. The manure hops that are spent, and other refuse, are taken by a Railway Company. There are five partners in the house; the firm being worth £8,000,000, and the head brewer receives a salary of £2,000 a year.
CATS ON GUARD.
The water used for brewing purposes is that of the Thames, pumped by a steam engine, on the same ground where Shakespeare's Globe Theatre stood three hundred years ago. One hundred and fifty thousand gallons of beer can be brewed from this water, daily. There are two engines of 100 horse power each, which are nearly a hundred years old. The furnace shaft is 19 feet below the surface and 110 above it. The malt is carried from barges at the river-side, by porters, and deposited in enormous bins, each of the height and depth of a three-story house. Rats are fond of malt, but to keep them off a staff of sixty large cats are constantly employed on the premises, and all these cats are under the supervision of a big-headed or chief cat, with a long moustache and Angola blood.
CATS RECEIVING RATIONS.
It is quite a sight to witness the anxious solicitude of this Chief Cat for the honor of the house of Barclay & Perkins, and for the discipline of his subordinate cats, the chief being a Thomas of the purest breed.
Thirty-six tons of coal per day are used here for brewing purposes, and the malt is stored in a huge room, with light windows, called the Great Brewhouse, built entirely of iron and brick. There is no continuous floor, but looking upwards, whenever the steaming vapor rises, there may be seen, at various heights, stages, platforms, and flights of stairs, all occupied by the Cyclopean piles of brewing vessels.