Journal of Medieval History ISSN: 0304-4181 (Print) 1873-1279 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmed20 ‘Ale for an Englishman is a natural drink’: the Dutch and the origins of beer brewing in late medieval England Milan Pajic To cite this article: Milan Pajic (2019) ‘Ale for an Englishman is a natural drink’: the Dutch and the origins of beer brewing in late medieval England, Journal of Medieval History, 45:3, 285-300, DOI: 10.1080/03044181.2019.1612182 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2019.1612182 Published online: 02 May 2019. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 155 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rmed20 JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY 2019, VOL. 45, NO. 3, 285–300 https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2019.1612182 ‘Ale for an Englishman is a natural drink’: the Dutch and the origins of beer brewing in late medieval England Milan Pajic St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY It is generally acknowledged that during the Middle Ages, the English focused more on the production of ale and that beer production was brought from continental Europe. Indeed, numerous immigrants from the Low Countries settled in various towns where they introduced and popularised the new drink. However, questions about the beginnings of beer production and the involvement of immigrants in beer brewing remain unanswered. This article aims to establish the exact dating for the introduction of beer and its production, for which scholarly estimates still range from the mid fourteenth to the mid fifteenth centuries. It will also examine the reasons that led beer brewers from the Low Countries to settle in England during the fifteenth century, the period when this industry grew substantially in Holland and Zeeland. Received 20 February 2019 Accepted 1 April 2019 KEYWORDS Immigration; England; Dutch; beer; ale; beer brewers; trade From the late thirteenth century onwards, resident aliens became a regular part of everyday life in England. Numerous merchants, members of the clergy and craftsmen from overseas chose to settle on a permanent basis, principally in urban areas.1 Apart from being the ‘other’, they also shaped English society in many ways and made contributions to its economy, culture and diet. One of the minority influences in England was the introduction of beer, first as an imported product for consumption and then its manufacture. Before the introduction of beer, ale brewing had existed in England for centuries. Indeed, throughout the Middle Ages, ale was a beverage slightly weaker in alcoholic content than nowadays and represented a regular part of the diet of ordinary people in England. Adults CONTACT Milan Pajic mp826@cam.ac.uk St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1RL, UK 1 The following abbreviations are used in this article: CPR, 1429‒36: Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office: Henry VI, vol. 2, A.D. 1429‒36 (London: H.M.S.O., 1907); CUL: Cambridge, Cambridge University Library; EIDB: England’s Immigrants Database, at www.Englandsimmigrants.com; ERO: Chelmsford, Essex Record Office; GL: London, Guildhall Library, now part of London Metropolitan Archives; NRO: Norwich, Norfolk Record Office; PROME: C. Given-Wilson and others, eds., Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 16 vols (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005); SROI: Ipswich, Suffolk Record Office; TNA: Kew, The National Archives. Works that deal with the alien presence in England from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries include Alice Beardwood, Alien Merchants in England, Their Legal and Economic Position, 1350–77 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931); Nigel Goose, Immigrants in Tudor and Early Stuart England (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2005); Lien B. Luu, Immigrants and Industries of London 1500–1700 (London: Ashgate, 2005); see also the edited volume, book and other articles arising from Mark Ormrod’s AHRC project England’s Immigrants 1350–1550: N. McDonald, W.M. Ormrod and C. Taylor, eds., Resident Aliens in Later Medieval England (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018); W.M. Ormrod, Bart Lambert and Jonathan Mackman, Immigrant England, 1300–1550 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019). © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group 286 M. PAJIC and children drank ale most of the time, as water was polluted and considered unhealthy and wine was too expensive.2 It has been estimated that each working individual might have consumed one gallon of ale a day.3 Ale was thus one of the essential products and brewed virtually by every household in England. Moreover, brewing ale was straightforward, as it required relatively cheap specialist tools and it could be ready to drink in single day by mixing malt, yeast and boiled water.4 Brewing was a business predominantly run by women, who most often brewed principally for domestic consumption; because of ale’s perishability, brewsters frequently made profits by selling the surplus before it soured.5 By the fourteenth century, English brewing became a more specialised activity for commercial purposes and this phenomenon was particularly widespread in urban areas. The profits from brewing increased as the Black Death reduced the price of grain and consumption per person rose; at the same time, the number of brewers and brewsters grew.6 This process, the professionalisation of brewing, might have been accelerated by the introduction of beer to the English market from the mid fourteenth century. Beer, which had a different taste to ale, contained hops and was brought from Hanseatic towns and the northern Low Countries; the English were well aware of differences between the two. From the 1350s, the sources make a clear distinction between ale, always recorded by the Latin term cervisia, and beer, designated by different variations of the word that came from vernacular German, such as ber, beer, bier and beere. The presence of beer brewers from the Low Countries in late medieval England has been documented by historians and it is a widely accepted view that beer production was brought from Continental Europe. However, questions about the beginnings of beer production and the involvement of immigrants from the Low Countries remain unanswered. In her book on medieval trade between England and the northern Low Countries, Nelly Kerling posited that the English probably learnt to brew beer from the Dutch immigrants who settled during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.7 In an important contribution to the history of brewing, Judith Bennett noted that beer brewing was brought to England by aliens and concluded that it was a predominantly male activity, as the majority of immigrants were usually male.8 Marjorie McIntosh came to similar conclusions.9 Richard Britnell’s study of Colchester demonstrates that beer brewing was brought there by Dutch immigrants by at least the beginning of the fifteenth century.10 Nicholas Amor observed the same trend in the neighbouring Ipswich, where some of 2 Judith M. Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World 1300–1600 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996), 17. Nicholas Amor, Late Medieval Ipswich: Trade and Industry (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2011), 152. 4 Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters, 17. 5 Chris Woolgar estimated that ale could last up to two weeks. Christopher M. Woolgar, The Great Household in Late Medieval England (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), 126‒7. Since it soured quickly Judith Bennett concluded that although ale was sometimes exported on ships, its sale was predominantly limited to the vicinity of where it was produced: Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters, 85. 6 Richard W. Unger, Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 98. 7 Nelly J. M. Kerling, Commercial Relations of Holland and Zeeland with England from the Late 13th Century to the Close of the Middle Ages (Leiden: Brill, 1954), 115. 8 Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters, 80–4. 9 Marjorie K. McIntosh, Working Women in English Society 1300–1620 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 150–7. 10 Richard H. Britnell, Growth and Decline in Colchester 1300–1525 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 195–7. 3 JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY 287 the immigrants generated large profits from beer production.11 In a recent study on the economy and trade of late medieval south-eastern England, Mavis Mate discussed beer brewing in more detail from the 1450s, but hypothesised that the trade was probably present in these regions half a century earlier.12 Mia Ball and Lien Luu observed that there was resistance when immigrant beer brewers arrived in London in the fifteenth century, but by the sixteenth century, beer was widely accepted and beer brewing was practised even by the native population.13 Most authors agree that initially beer was imported, and that its production was introduced into England slightly later. However, the dating of the introduction of beer and its production are still vague, ranging from the mid fourteenth to the mid fifteenth centuries. The reasons why beer brewers from the Low Countries settled in England during the fifteenth century remain unclear; after all, it was at this period that the industry grew substantially in Holland and Zeeland. It should also be stressed that beer brewing and immigration from the Low Countries were not the main focus of the historical studies noted above. This article sheds new light on this topic by presenting the evidence from towns of Eastern England and London, demonstrating how a minority group which came from abroad influenced trade and developed new dimensions to it with their knowledge, capital and skills. The alien presence in later medieval England Aliens in late medieval England are usually recognisable by their specific forenames, surnames and the occasional mention of their ethnicity in royal and local sources.14 Clearer evidence comes from after the collapse of the Anglo-Burgundian alliance in 1436, when oaths of fealty were imposed by the Crown on those originating from lands belonging to the duke of Burgundy and living in England.15 People from the Low Countries became a potential threat to the kingdom’s security and were required either to leave England, or take an oath of fealty to the English Crown. More than 1,800 chose the latter course and were granted licences to remain within the king’s peace and to have uninterrupted rights to their possessions.16 Moreover, during the same period, because of war with France and the number of non-English residents, who were suspected of being potentially dangerous, tensions grew between the native population and aliens.17 One of the wartime measures was an introduction of a direct poll tax in 1439–40, more commonly 11 Amor, Late Medieval Ipswich, 154–5. Mavis Mate, Trade and Economic Development 1450–1550: the Experiences of Kent, Surrey and Sussex (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006), 60–80. 13 Luu, Immigrants and Industries, 259–94; Mia Ball, The Worshipful Company of Brewers: the Short History (London: Hutchinson, 1977), 11–64. 14 On distinguishing Flemish craftsmen in the English sources during the fourteenth century, see Milan Pajic, ‘The Migration of Flemish Weavers to England in the Fourteenth Century: Their Economic Influence and Transfer of Skills 1331–1381’, (PhD diss., Universities of Ghent and Strasbourg, 2016), 27–9; see also Milan Pajic, Flemish Textile Workers in England, 1331‒1400: Immigration, Integration and Economic Development (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2019). 15 Marie-Rose Thielemans, Bourgogne et Angleterre: relations politiques et économiques entre les Pays-Bas bourguignons et l’Angleterre, 1435–1467 (Brussels: Presses universitaires de Bruxelles, 1966), 283–97. 16 W.M. Ormrod and J. Mackman, ‘Resident Aliens in Medieval England: Sources, Contexts and Debates’, in Resident Aliens, eds. McDonald, Ormrod and Taylor, 7. 17 For the amounts levied and those who were exempt from paying, see Ormrod and Mackman, ‘Resident Aliens’, 8. For more information on the overall position, see James L. Bolton, ‘London and the Anti-Alien Legislation 1439–40’, in Resident Aliens, eds. McDonald, Ormrod and Taylor, 33–47. 12 288 M. PAJIC Table 1. Beer brewers who paid the alien subsidy 1430‒90. Year 1430‒9 1440–9 1450–9 1460–9 1470–9 1480–9 Number of beer brewers 4 14 11 2 1 81 Source: England’s Immigrants Database. known as the alien subsidy.18 This was levied annually on unnaturalised alien-born residents in England over 12 years of age, and several dozens of nominal lists are extant. The AHRC funded England’s Immigrants project at the University of York has recently compiled a database of names appearing in these lists.19 There were about 56,400 aliens who paid the alien subsidy, took an oath of fealty, or received letters of denization between 1350 and 1490. Amongst the assessed were 117 individuals whose occupation was stated as beer brewer. Most of them originated from the Low Countries and their number grew over the fifteenth century to reach its peak in the 1480s (Table 1). This number rises to 333 individuals if we take into account those whose surname indicates that they were involved in beer brewing.20 Although such a surname does not automatically mean that the person was indeed involved in beer brewing, nevertheless there are reasons to believe that at least some of them were actually beer brewers. Out of the total number of those who paid the subsidy, 19 were female immigrants. The figures in Table 1 are an underestimate, because the lists of alien subsidies and oaths of fealty are detailed only for the years 1440–1 and 1483–4, and are almost entirely missing for the 1460s and 1470s. There is a geographical bias as well: these documents are better preserved for some areas than others, and when compared to the local records, there are several inconsistencies, as we will see later. Ale and beer: regulation of production and sale Most of our knowledge of the production and sale of beer and ale in late medieval England comes from the remarkably good judicial records. Good sets of local borough court records survive for the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in several urban areas where a considerable alien presence was attested by the lay subsidies. Borough courts usually consisted of two separate jurisdictions: one that dealt with private litigation concerning debt, detention of chattels, breach of contract and trespass, the other with cases of violation of private property and physical aggression that fell short of felony. These courts had more or less similar denominations in different towns (for example, court of pleas in Colchester, petty pleas in Great Yarmouth and Ipswich). Minor crimes, including night wandering, or the carrying of weapons, and prosecution resulting from all kinds of police work, such as fines for prostitution, or for making and selling ale and bread against the assize, were brought to the court leet (or law hundred court).21 The latter are a main source 18 Sylvia Thrupp, ‘A Survey of the Alien Population of England in 1440’, Speculum 32 (1957): 262–73. EIDB. For example Hance Beerbrewer, ‘Dutch’, paid the subsidy in Norwich, Deryk Berbruwere, in Harwich, and William Bierbruer in Canterbury. Although their occupations are not stated, it is very likely that they were involved in beer brewing. TNA, E 179/124/107, m. 7; E 179/270/31, m. 50; E 179/149/145, m. 1. 19 20 JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY 289 for this study, as they contain the names of individuals amerced for the production and sale of beer and ale. The survival rate of leet records varies, and the best example is Great Yarmouth, where the records run uninterrupted from 1367 until the seventeenth century.22 Those for Ipswich,23 Cambridge,24 Lynn25 and Colchester26 are not extant to the same degree as the records for Great Yarmouth, but they still contain precious and sufficiently voluminous information. In order to keep ale for commercial purposes up to a certain standard, a royal statute, the so-called assize of bread and ale (assisa panis et cervisie) was introduced in 1266 to regulate quality, prices and measures of bread and ale.27 The assize was enforced by local authorities and one of its main features was that it tied the cost of a gallon of ale to the price of grain.28 Accordingly, every Michaelmas term (starting 29 September) in Ipswich, the town’s officials would announce the rates of the assize and collect the fines from those who brewed and sold contrary to the regulation.29 Apart from Cambridge, it is not clear who enforced the assize in the other urban areas used for this study. On English manors and in Cambridge, those who brewed and sold ale were regulated by local officials called the ale tasters, whose job was literally to taste the final product and ensure that it was made to a suitable standard. However, in Great Yarmouth, Ipswich, Lynn and Colchester, there are indications that this was done by the capital pledges, whose main duties were to form the juries of presentment and inquest as well as to name people who broke the assize of ale, but no evidence exists that any of them was specifically charged with ale tasting. Nevertheless, in any given town, the court leet met once a year and like manorial courts with this jurisdiction named all those who ‘brewed and broke the assize’.30 However, given the repetitive nature of the entries, it seems that this system of fines worked in fact as a licensing fee.31 For example, in Colchester between 1352 and 1367, 80% of those who paid fines were the same individuals every year and it is unlikely that they were cheating their customers repeatedly.32 Although brewing served as a secondary occupation for many people, the distinction can still be made between commercial brewers (those who made larger quantities of ale destined primarily for sale and appeared regularly in the court leet) and domestic brewers (who primarily produced ale for their own domestic consumption and periodically paid fines, probably when they made sufficient surplus to sell ale).33 The majority of those in 21 Court leet was the term in Cambridge, Lynn, Ipswich and Great Yarmouth, while law hundred court was used in Colchester, but they had the same functions. For more details on the work of the borough court in Colchester, Richard H. Britnell, ‘Colchester Courts and Court Records, 1310–1525’, Essex Archaeology and History 17 (1986): 133–40. 22 NRO, Y/C 4/1–368. 23 There are several dozen rolls for various wards of Ipswich held at SROI: C/2/8/1. For the organisation and functioning of Ipswich court leet, see Amor, Late Medieval Ipswich, 139–40. 24 CUL, C.U.R 17. 25 NRO, KL/C 17/1–11. 26 ERO, D/B 5 CR 1–40. 27 A. Luders and others, eds., Statutes of the Realm, 11 vols (London: Record Commission, 1810‒28), 1: 199–205. 28 James Davis, ‘Baking for the Common Good: a Reassessment of the Assize of Bread in Medieval England’, Economic History Review, new series 57 (2004): 465–502. 29 Amor, Late Medieval Ipswich, 139–40. 30 NRO, Y/C 4/75–125. In all the courts leet the same formula was used: ‘braciatores braciaverunt et venderunt cervisiam contra assisam.’ 31 Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters, 162. 32 W.G. Benham, ed., The Court Rolls of the Borough of Colchester, 3 vols (Colchester: Town Council of the Borough, 1921–41), 2: 24, 39, 61, 74, 105, 124. 33 Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters, 18. 290 M. PAJIC presentments for breaking the assize of ale before the fifteenth century were women. One out of 10 of these women were aliens, for the most part wives of the exiled Flemish textile workers who arrived in England after 1351.34 Throughout the fourteenth century most female immigrants from the Low Countries in England seem not to have pursued brewing as a primary occupation, but as source of intermittent income, involved principally in the production of ale.35 Some of them, like the wives of William de Gaunt and John Duchman in Colchester, were amerced on a regular basis between 1371 and 1377, as were other women in this town.36 They probably produced ale principally for domestic consumption and sold the surplus before it soured, while having another primary occupation. Apart from production of ale, the immigrants as well as natives were also involved in the retail sale or ‘tippling’ of beer and ale. This was done in two ways: either in alehouses, or in the streets by hucksters.37 It seems that there was a clear distinction between those who sold retail and those who produced ale. Indeed, in the towns of Cambridge and Ipswich, brewers were named separately from tipplers in every leet. In Ipswich, the proportion of tipplers to brewers was five to three throughout the fifteenth century, suggesting that the brewers were probably focused more on the manufacture and sale of their product wholesale.38 Apart from involvement in the production and sale of ale, immigrants from the Low Countries also imported and sold beer. Through litigation in the borough court of Great Yarmouth, we can observe that beer was present in England from at least the 1350s, three decades earlier than previous studies have suggested.39 In the second half of the fourteenth century retail distribution of beer was overwhelmingly controlled by Flemish immigrants. For example, in 1358, Margaret fan Outraght accused Mace fan Rotterdame of detention of chattels; she claimed that six barrels of beer left at Mace’s house, by one Robert Houdestoc, were missing.40 Ten years later, Heyne fan Campe brought a debt plea against another Fleming, John Pouchmaker, for two barrels of beer.41 The presence of beer was not peculiar to Great Yarmouth. While looking into the particulars of the customs accounts for Lynn, albeit patchy in their coverage, Nelly Kerling was led to believe that the absence of imported beer was the consequence of the strength of competition from ale produced there.42 However, if we look at the court leet records, the evidence suggests that beer was present in Lynn in the second half of the fourteenth century and probably in higher amounts than elsewhere in Norfolk. For example, in 1375, Echelberg Esterling and Walter Couper were fined for selling beer according to false measures.43 Sixteen years 34 For the context of Flemish exiles in fourteenth-century England and involvement of their wives in ale brewing, see Pajic, ‘Migration of Flemish Weavers’, 30–60, 241–62. On the division between commercial and domestic brewing, see Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters, 18‒19. 36 Benham, ed., Court Rolls, 3: 41, 52, 119, 178; Pajic, ‘Migration of Flemish Weavers’, 241–62. The number of women amerced for brewing in Colchester from 1350 until 1450 varied between 150 and 250 individuals per annum: see Britnell, Growth and Decline, 194. 37 McIntosh, Working Women, 157. 38 Amor, Late Medieval Ipswich, 153. 39 Kerling, Commercial Relations, 114. The only earlier evidence comes from Norwich in 1290, when a man was fined for ‘selling Flemish ale privily’. The name is suggestive, but there are no other examples in the surviving borough courts before the mid fourteenth century. Moreover, hopped beer was introduced to Flanders only after the 1350s, as was shown by Erik Aerts, Het bier van Lier: de economische ontwikkeling van de bierindustrie in een middelgrote Brabantse stad einde 14de–begin 19de eeuw (Brussels: AWLSK, 1996). For the example, see William Hudson, Leet Jurisdiction in the City of Norwich During the XIIIth and XIVth Century … Selden Society 5 (London: Selden Society, 1892), 43. 40 NRO, Y/C 4/76, m. 4d. 41 NRO, Y/C 4/89, m. 3. 42 Kerling, Commercial Relations, 114. 35 JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY 291 later, Lievin Webster was fined for regrating beer.44 These men were probably not professional brewers, but just complementing their primary occupation with the sale of beer. Given their forenames and surnames, they were obviously aliens.45 The origins of beer brewing in England Most of the beer sold in England before 1400 probably came from Holland and Zeeland. The first direct evidence of imported beer in England comes from Great Yarmouth in 1361 when Jacob Dodinesone from Amsterdam paid toll for beer.46 In 1365, three Hanseatic merchants who seem to have been from Hamburg paid the customs in Boston for their cargo which included beer as well.47 It might well be that at this point beer served solely the needs of the immigrants from the Low Countries and Hanseatic towns. Nevertheless, it was only from the 1380s that beer imports became a regular feature of the local customs accounts in Great Yarmouth and other ports of England.48 We have already seen above that beer was sold in Great Yarmouth from 1358 and appears regularly in its borough court. It is, however, unclear through what channels beer reached the Flemish immigrants who sold it. The particulars of customs accounts are extant for almost every year between 1350 and 1378 and although some of them are more detailed than others, apart from the case in 1361, they do not make mention of any beer imports. For example, in 1371, eight Flemings were fined for selling beer against the assize. Although they appeared in the court leet together with those who paid a fine for producing ale, the note beside their names explicitly states that they were selling beer.49 The particulars of the customs accounts for 1371 and the year before are extant and detailed enough, but it seems that if any beer was imported at that time, it was not recorded.50 Moreover, it is even more striking that between 1370 and 1380, there were at least five immigrants from the Low Countries who were fined every year for selling beer retail, regrating or forestalling.51 It is possible that at this point, most of the imported beer was exempted from toll, because it would seem illogical and costly that beer was first brought to Lynn or Boston and then transported to Great Yarmouth. The question would not need to be raised if the sources provided the slightest hint that some of this beer was produced in England in the 1370s. However, in all cases from Great Yarmouth and Lynn, there is always a clear reference that the beer was sold, but not brewed by the seller. Even in London, where our first evidence 43 NRO, KL/C 17/9. NRO, KL/C 17/11. Regrating was the purchase of goods (usually food) from a market in order to resell them at an inflated price in the same market. 45 Lievin is a typical Flemish forename, Couper was a very common surname for immigrants from the Low Countries, and Esterling was used for a person originating from Germany. 46 H.J. Smit, ed., Bronnen tot de geschiedenis van den handel met Engeland, Schotland en Ierland: 1150–1585. Rijks geschiedkundige publicatiën, Grote serie, 65, 66, 86, 91. 2 vols. in 4 (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1928‒50), 1, part 1: no. 506. 47 TNA, E 122/7/10, m. 1d. 48 Smit, Bronnen, 1, part 1: no. 576. 49 NRO, Y/C 4/84, mm. 1d, 2. 50 Y/C 4/83, mm. 17, 18; Y/C 4/84, mm. 4, 5. All of the extant particulars of the customs accounts contain traditional imports such as madder, Rhenish wine, steel, and so on, and there would be no reason to omit the beer: it appeared in the customs accounts for Boston mentioned in note 47. Hops, an essential ingredient for beer brewing, do not appear either. 51 Y/C 4/84, m. 1d, 2; Y/C 4/85, m. 1d; Y/C 4/88, m. 8d; Y/C 4/89, m. 12d; Y/C 4/90, m. 12. Forestalling was the buying of goods before they reached market. 44 292 M. PAJIC comes only in 1372, Henry Vandale was fined for buying four barrels of beere in order to forestall it.52 Here too, there is no indication that this beer was produced in England. There might have been a lower demand for beer before the 1370s, as the English market was still adapting to the new product, so that there was no need for any tighter regulation. The consumption of ale increased from 1350, but so did its production and the number of brewsters.53 Between 1350 and 1370, in Colchester, Great Yarmouth and Lynn, enough ale was produced to be exported to Holland, Zeeland and Gascony on a regular basis.54 Moreover, in the second half of the fourteenth century most of the immigrants from the Low Countries resident in England were from Flanders and Brabant, places where hopped beer began to be produced only from the 1360s.55 Most of those immigrants were involved in ale brewing, which implies that until 1370, beer that was brought to England might have been the surplus from beer that Dutch and German sailors used on ships as part of their regular diet. However, from this point onwards, it seems that the demand for beer was increasing, which was reflected by the fines recorded in the courts leet of Great Yarmouth and Lynn. A few years later, as we shall see, beer became a regular cargo on ships arriving at Great Yarmouth, Hull, London and other ports of England, which confirms that the competitive potential of beer against ale was growing. Inconsistencies between the documents relating to beer in the court leet and its import notwithstanding, the latter is better documented from 1379–80 onwards. In 1379 a ship from Holland brought an undisclosed quantity of beer to Hull, while another consignment of 432 barrels of beer went to Newcastle from Arnemuiden a year later.56 At the same time, the city of London imported large quantities of the bitter drink as well.57 In East Anglia, in 1380, 15 barrels were imported on ships from Vlaardingen to the port of Great Yarmouth.58 It seems that only three barrels were intended to stay in this town, as a Flemish woman, Alice Pouchmaker, took the remaining 12 barrels to the city of Norwich,59 and beer for Norwich continued to be supplied through Great Yarmouth.60 Moreover, all of the imports in 1380 and later were brought by merchants from Holland and Zeeland, who carried away significant quantities of English ale in exchange, suggesting that beer was imported for its taste rather than to compensate for a shortage of ale.61 Who was selling this beer and who were the customers? Existing scholarship suggests that in the second half of the fourteenth century, beer in England was mainly intended for the immigrants from the Low Countries and Hanseatic towns.62 This might have been the case between 1350 and 1370, but the situation changed rapidly thereafter. In 1375, five 52 A.H. Thomas, ed., Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls, Preserved among the Archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall, 5 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926‒41), 2: 147. The surname Vandale (probably Van Dale) suggests an origin in the Low Countries. 53 Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters, 17. 54 Kerling, Commercial Relations, 217–18. 55 Unger, Beer Renaissance, 94; Aerts, Het bier van Lier, 140–4. 56 Smit, Bronnen, 1, part 1:, nos. 577, 589, 603. 57 TNA, E 122/71/8, m. 1. 58 NRO, Y/C 4/91, m. 12d. 59 Y/C 4/91, m. 12d: ‘exeunt versus Norwico’. 60 Y/C 4/92, m. 2, John Sotterton from Norwich carrying ale out of England and beer to Norwich; Y/C 4/95, m. 4, Isebraght Outersone taking 12 barrels of beer to Norwich. 61 NRO, Y/C 4/91, m. 11; for example, William Ysebout took 48 barrels of English ale to Ostend; William and Mews Jacobsson exported another 20 barrels to Newerhaven. 62 Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters, 84–5; Kerling, Commercial Relations, 112–14; Unger, Beer Renaissance, 97–9. JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY 293 individuals were fined in the court leet of Lynn for selling 26 barrels of beer by false measures or unsealed. Two aliens, Walter Couper and Echelberg Esterling, were responsible for the sale of 16 barrels, while John de Coventry, Margaret Brumpton and Roger Paxman, all three of them natives, for the remaining 10.63 In Norwich, five out of six people fined for tippling beer in 1391 were aliens.64 Even if more than half was still sold by the immigrants, the English were developing an interest in the sale of beer as well. We find a similar situation in Great Yarmouth. In 1381, John Yepeswich accused John Godfrey, a wright, of owing him 7s. 11d., of which 7s. was for beer and the remainder for woollen cloth.65 On the other hand, immigrants from the Low Countries in Lynn, Great Yarmouth and presumably elsewhere in England took part in the production and marketing of ale.66 A similar trend continued in the following decades. In Great Yarmouth, besides Betekyn the Duchwoman, who regularly paid fines for regrating beer,67 between 1394 and 1401, several natives were involved as well. A baker, John Spilfot, and his wife sold beer to both natives and aliens in the late 1380s and 1390s.68 Also, Robert Sadeler unjustly took two barrels from another Englishman, John Elys in 1398.69 Of seven individuals who sold beer in Lynn in 1391, only one was an immigrant from the Low Countries.70 During the last decade of the fourteenth century, beer was also sent as part of the regular provisions for the garrison at Calais, in a period of constant warfare with France. English soldiers were so used to beer that a special broker was appointed in 1397 to provide considerable quantities of ‘ale of Holand, Eastland and Zeeland and from other places – otherwise called “beer”’ (‘cervisie de Holand, Estland, Seland et de aliis locis aliter vocate beer’).71 It has also been suggested that one of the main reasons why England moved from ale to beer consumption was linked to military purposes. During the expeditions of the Hundred Years War, food and drink for the army on the Continent were mostly supplied from England. Beer lasted longer than ale and thus there was no fear that it would be spoiled after a longer period in transport.72 Although more and more people were consuming beer and there was a growing demand, during the 1380s and well into the 1390s, it was still not brewed on English soil. Indeed, in the closing years of the fourteenth century imports only continued to grow. However, the turning point for the production of beer in England may indeed have been related to provisioning the Calais garrison. In 1402 when the mayor of Calais was granted permission by Henry IV to manage the sale of victuals in the town, the assize of beer was included along with wine, bread and ale.73 This was the first time that the regulation of beer was mentioned in an official document in England and although 63 NRO, KL/C 17/9. NRO, NCR 5b/11 mm. 1d, 3. John Prikker, Henry Wylde, John Donsell, John van Lere and Floritius Taylor were aliens; Henry Dilham was probably an Englishman. 65 NRO, Y/C 4/92, m. 11. 66 KL/C 17/13: John Selander, Godfride Taylor Ducheman, John Gerardson cordwainer and Ducheman were all fined for regrating ale in Lynn. For more details on the distribution of beer in Great Yarmouth, see Pajic, ‘Migration of Flemish Weavers to England’, 241–62. 67 NRO, Y/C 4/105, m. 11d; Y/C 4/106, m. 20d ; Y/C 4/107, m. 21d; Y/C 4/111, m. 18. 68 Y/C 4/109, m. 21; Y/C 4/110, m. 5d ; Y/C 4/117, m. 8d. 69 Y/C 4/109, m. 20. 70 KL/C 17/11. 71 Cited from Kerling, Commercial Relations, 114. 72 Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters, 92–3. 73 PROME, 3: 500. 64 294 M. PAJIC this permission concerned the town of Calais alone, it seems that it followed the trend of other English towns. We have already seen that the English local authorities made a clear distinction between beer and ale, but initially only the latter was strictly controlled. In Great Yarmouth, where the record of courts leet is unbroken, we can determine the exact date at which beer started to be produced in England. During the 1390s, there were signs that brewing was becoming more professionalised, and the sale of beer more confined to individuals from trades broadly related to brewing. For example, Betekyn Duchewoman, who was involved in ale production, was fined for the sale of beer, on several occasions.74 John ye Ducheman worked as a weaver and baker at the same time and was fined for exercising two professions, as well as for regrating beer.75 Here, the evidence suggests that the authorities saw brewing as an increasingly commercialised trade and were less tolerant of people complementing their income by the production and petty sale of beer and ale. Bakers, who were usually associated with ale brewing,76 also became involved in the distribution of beer. Indeed, John Spilfot was fined large amounts on several occasions as a regrator of beer, which suggests that he might have handled larger quantities.77 When exactly did beer production start in Great Yarmouth? The first evidence of someone brewing beer comes from 1398–9. Peter Woutersone, Ducheman, was fined for buying ‘wheat in the market in order to produce beer, to the great damage of the same market’.78 The very wording of the fine suggests that the authorities were not keen on allowing beer to be brewed. This is the earliest official evidence found so far of beer production in England, that is, slightly earlier than the previous studies have suggested. Beer may have been produced earlier in England, but this is the earliest date that we can document with accuracy, as we have an uninterrupted set of sources for the preceding and following years. Indeed, in the following courts leet, Peter Wouterson continued to be fined regularly for breaking the assize of beer and it was even stated on several occasions that his occupation was a beer brewer.79 Previously, English sources referred to the occupation of brewer alone, but now further distinction was required, between those who brewed beer and those who brewed ale. At the same time, Peter was also fined for forestalling wheat, exercising several occupations and crafts, and also for selling spoiled beer and using false bushel measures.80 He was not the only beer brewer in the town. A few years later, Martin Berbrewer, Ducheman, John Spitling and Frederik Berbrewer, Ducheman, paid fines for breaking the assize of beer.81 We will see later that obstacles to the expansion of beer brewing also existed in other parts of the country. There is evidence that beer started to be regulated in other English towns around the same years as at Great Yarmouth. In Colchester, the first amercements for producing beer appeared in 1406 and most of those fined were Dutch in origin.82 The taste for 74 NRO, Y/C 4/105, m. 11d; Y/C 4/106, m. 20d; Y/C 4/107, m. 21d; Y/C, 4/111 m. 18. Y/C 4/111, m. 18. Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters, 47. 77 NRO, Y/C 4/109, m. 21; Y/C 4/110, m. 5d; Y/C 4/117, m. 8d. 78 Y/C 4/110, m. 6: ‘Peter Woutresone emit frumentum in foro ad faciendum inde beer ad magnam caristiam fori.’ 79 Y/C 4/111, m. 18; Y/C 4/114, m. 17d; Y/C 4/115, m. 19; Y/C 4/116, m. 17d. 80 Y/C 4/117, m. 8d; Y/C 4/119, m. 18. 81 Y/C 4/120, m. 15; Y/C 4/120, m. 15d. 82 Britnell, Growth and Decline, 195. Those amerced were John Smyth, Ducheman, Clays Ducheman and a woman Agnes Smyth, Ducheman. 75 76 JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY 295 beer in Colchester had developed in the fourteenth century: the customs accounts show that at least 100 barrels a year were imported during the 1390s.83 In Ipswich, the leet rolls are missing for the first decade of the fifteenth century, and the earliest account of juries regulating beer comes to us from 1416, when Simon Berbrewer was amerced.84 Further north, Adwyn Ducheman, berbrewer, operated his business in 1418 in Boston, while the first beer brewer to be admitted into the freedom of York was Florencius Janson in 1421.85 On the other hand, in Cambridge, from 1407 to 1419, Peter Lamb, Ducheman, and Henry Ducheman were only involved in the production of ale.86 In the records of the seven surviving courts leet where they were presented, they were never associated with beer, unlike their compatriots in other English towns, suggesting that beer probably arrived at Cambridge only later in the fifteenth century.87 The place in England that probably saw the largest number of beer brewers from the Low Countries was the capital. The England’s Immigrants Database lists at least 54 of them who paid the subsidy or took an oath of fealty between 1436 and 1457.88 The city’s letter books and memoranda rolls do not tell us much about beer brewing, but we are fortunate to have the records of the brewers’ guild, kept by their clerk, William Porlond.89 He kept a remarkably extensive set of notes from 1418 until 1440 and these contain complete lists of members, who paid annual dues to the guild (quarterage), attended the guild breakfast and the annual feast, bought and wore its distinctive clothing (hood or gowns) for the same feast, joined the fraternity and acquired citizenship through membership of the guild.90 In the lists of new members for the period 1418–25, there were aliens as well. At least four were from the Low Countries: Dederick Johaneson (1422), Matys Adrianeson (1422), William Claisson (1418) and Cornelius Gheen (1423). When they entered the fraternity, it was specifically noted that they were Dutchmen and beer brewers, suggesting that beer production existed in London before the first alien members were admitted into the fraternity.91 It is interesting that none of the alien members was associated with ale production. For example, when a dispute between the mayor of London and the company of brewers occurred in 1420, funds were raised specially to fight the city authorities, and all of the brewers in the city were expected to contribute.92 None of the immigrants from the Low Countries appears amongst those listed in these collections. These contributions were voluntary, and beer brewers had probably no interest in participating. 83 Britnell, Growth and Decline, 195. SROI, C/2/8/1/3 (East Ward). 85 TNA, CP 40/629, m. 170d; Francis Collins, ed., Register of Freemen of the City of York, vol. 1. Surtees Society 96 (Durham: Andrews and Co., 1897), 125. 86 CUL, C.U.R 17, mm. 6–10. Henry Ducheman seems to have been a baker. 87 There is some evidence that the Dutch beer brewers settled later than the beginning of the fifteenth century in Cambridge: see John S. Lee, Cambridge and Its Economic Region, 1450–1560 (Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2005), 264–5. 88 EIDB. 89 GL, MS 5440. On William Porlond, see Caroline Metcalfe, ‘William Porlond Clerk to the Craft and Fraternity of Brewers of London, 1418–1440’, Transactions of London and Middlesex Archaeological Society 64 (2013): 267–84. 90 More generally on the guild in London, see Ball, Worshipful Company of Brewers, 11–64; Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters, 61–77. 91 GL, MS 5440, ff. 42, 67v, 84, 84v, 108, 108v. 92 R.R. Sharpe, ed., Calendar of Letter-Books Preserved Among the Archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall: Letter Book I (London: Corporation of the City of London, 1909), 233–7. 84 296 M. PAJIC Nevertheless, if we look at William Porlond’s records, the Dutch members seem to have been largely integrated into the life of the fraternity. All of them, together with their wives, paid quarterage regularly and attended the company’s feast.93 Dederick Johnson and William Claysson wore the livery and contributed to the purchases for the annual brewers’ feast each year.94 In 1422, when the brewers’ company was undertaking construction works, repairing their hall and destroying fish weirs in the Thames, Dederick Johnson contributed 20s. 8d. and William Claysson 2s. 4d.95 They also contributed, together with 200 other members of the guild, for the relief of Calais in 1436.96 It appears that the guild of brewers thought that by incorporating foreign beer producers they could benefit from their skills, contributions to the fraternity and their share of customers. However, it seems that at the same time, there was ‘silent’ discrimination. For example, there is no evidence that foreign members ever held office, despite the fact that beer brewers were quite prosperous. More interestingly, although beer was already widely consumed throughout the City of London and across England,97 beer was never a part of the provisions for the buttery of the guild. That consisted only of red wine and two types of ale. Further, while two beer brewers, William Claysson and Edward Peterson, had their wills enrolled in 1437 and 1438, they made no bequests to the fraternity, although they were legitimate members.98 These pioneers were shortly followed by other beer brewers from the Low Countries who plied their trade in England. In Ipswich, Derik van Grave, John Ducheman and Geoffrey Pape were regularly fined for breaking the assize of beer during the 1420s.99 The oaths of fealty and the alien subsidy indicate that other beer brewers from the Low Countries arrived in Ipswich between 1430 and 1450: overall, at least 10 individuals.100 By 1440, the number of beer brewers in Great Yarmouth had risen from three to at least six.101 The evidence suggests that the same trend characterised both Lynn and Norwich.102 Other places, like Southwark, Scarborough, Boston and Colchester, had also seen an increase in the number of people whose occupation was given as ‘beer brewer’.103 ‘Beer brewers’ also started to settle in coastal villages in Norfolk, for example Tymon Gisebright and John Baron in Blakeney, and John Claysson and 93 Dederick Johnsone with his wife Weveyn and William Claisson with his wife Isabel were recorded on several occasions. GL, MS 5440, ff. 83r, 133r, 137v, 158v, 160r, 184v, 197v, 232v, 264v. 94 GL, MS 5440, ff. 128v, 178, 214v, 243. 95 GL, MS 5440, ff. 87, 87v, 89v. 96 GL, MS 5440, f. 267v. 97 V. Harding and L. Wright, eds., London Bridge: Selected Accounts and Rentals 1381–1538. London Record Society publications 31 (London: London Record Society, 1995), 85, 96. Beer was a regular part of expenses for labourers’ wages. In 1418, the city of London sent 300 tuns of beer and 200 of ale to the army of Henry V in France, suggesting that even more was produced in London: Henry T. Riley, ed., Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centuries (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868), 665–6. 98 London Metropolitan Archives, DL, MS 9171/3, f. 507. 99 SROI, C/2/8/1/3‒7. The immigrants from the Low Countries usually lived in the East Ward. 100 See EIDB and Amor, Late Medieval Ipswich, 152–6. 101 Amongst the most prominent were Arunt Couper, Clays Bone, Gyse Couper, Lutkyn Berbrewer, Clays Derykson and Deryk Taylor. NRO, Y/C 4/141, m. 13d; Y/C 4/144, m. 12d; Y/C 4/145, m. 13r ; Y/C 4/153, m. 17r; Y/C 4/147, m. 16d; Y/C 4/148, m. 20r; Y/C 4/151, m. 8d; Y/C 4/153, mm. 16d, 17r; Y/C 4/154, mm. 17r, 17d, 18r; Y/C 4/155, m. 15r; Y/C 4/156, mm. 11r, 11d; Y/C 4/157, mm. 6d, 7r; Y/C 4/158, m. 11r; Y/C 4/160, m. 15r. See also Bart Lambert and Christian D. Liddy, ‘The Civic Franchise and the Regulation of Aliens in Great Yarmouth, c.1430– 1490’, in Resident Aliens, eds. McDonald, Ormrod and Taylor, 125–47. 102 TNA, CP 40/677, m. 289d. See also the EIDB. 103 Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters, 81; Britnell, Growth and Decline, 195; M. Carlin, Medieval Southwark (London: Hambledon Press, 1996), 51–4. JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY 297 several others chose to settle in Harwich and Maldon in Essex.104 If we are to project our conclusions from Great Yarmouth and Colchester onto other English towns, the consequence is that the number of beer brewers was probably significantly higher than the alien subsidies suggest. These documents only very occasionally list the occupation of those who paid: the authorities were probably mostly interested in the income from them, and establishing the number of aliens. Thus, a different picture emerges from the evidence of the local sources. When we examine the alien subsidies, only one person per town in the group studied was listed as beer brewer, while the fines in the borough court for brewing beer against the assize suggest that there were six beer brewers in Great Yarmouth and 12 in Colchester. Although beer brewing was a predominantly male occupation, some women were also involved. For example, in 1411, Agnes Smyth, Ducheman, was amerced for breaking the assize of beer in Colchester.105 Isabel Garne operated her business of beer brewing in Ipswich early on, and several more women from the Low Countries operated theirs later in the fifteenth century. Nicholas Amor and Judith Bennett suggested that most of these women might have been widows who continued their husbands’ trade.106 However, even during their husbands’ lives, these women played an important role. Beer brewing also functioned as a family business. When the immigrants from the Low Countries were admitted to the guild of London brewers, they were recorded with their wives.107 Moreover, because hostelling and beer brewing were usually practised together, it might have been that the husbands made beer and wives tippled, as was often the case in Great Yarmouth. Whenever the place of origin of those who came from the Low Countries is stated more specifically, we can observe that all of them were from the northern Low Countries, mostly from the cities that dominated the trade in beer brewing. For example, Dederick Johansson who settled in London with his wife and entered the brewers’ guild was from Amsterdam.108 In Great Yarmouth, Clays Bone was from Gouda, John Swolle from Tiel and John Wauterson from Delft.109 At least one more immigrant from Delft, Gerard Berbrewer, settled in Norwich, while John Peterson from Leiden took permanent residence in Scarborough in Yorkshire.110 Of those who settled in villages, we know that Tymon Gisebright, who operated his business in Blakeney, was from Utrecht.111 The production of hopped beer was predominantly an urban craft based in Holland and Zeeland, with the cities of Haarlem, Delft, Gouda and Leiden leading the trade.112 From the beginning of the fourteenth century, Dutch beer makers started to move into the Flemish market, which had been dominated since at least the thirteenth century by beer imported from Hamburg. Eventually, the Dutch became serious competitors of the Hanseatic merchants: it was at this point that Dutch beer brewing shifted from a local market towards export104 TNA, CP 40/705, mm. 30, 100, 197d; CP 40/724, m. 275d. Tymon Gisbright also took an oath of fealty and paid the alien subsidy on two occasions: CPR, 1429–36, 573; TNA, E 179/180/92, Part 2, m. 13 (EIDB); TNA, CP 40/807, m. 565; CP 40/677, m. 368d. 105 Britnell, Growth and Decline, 195. 106 Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters, 106; Amor, Late Medieval Ipswich, 155. 107 See the cases of William Claysson, Dederick Johnson and others above. 108 CPR, 1429–36, 566. 109 CPR, 1429–36, 572, 575, 577. 110 CPR, 1429–36, 554, 579. 111 CPR, 1429–36, 573. 112 Kerling, Commercial Relations, 115. 298 M. PAJIC oriented production.113 In 1388, for example, the city of Bruges imported 2,577,750 litres of Dutch beer, of which half was from Delft.114 Moreover, the expansion of exports into the English market fostered the professionalisation of Dutch beer brewing. Instead of family units, the formation of workshop clusters provided the basis for trade. Between 1380 and 1430, the northern Low Countries experienced a general period of substantial economic growth and beer brewing became the second biggest industry after textiles.115 Under such favourable domestic circumstances, why would any Dutch beer brewer decide to settle in England? It has been assumed that floods in 1407 and 1408, which ruined the corn harvests, and generally the environmental pressure on Holland might have pushed some of the beer brewers to move to England.116 This seems plausible, as beer makers were certainly affected by the floods. The civil war of 1428 may have been a driving force as well. However, beer brewers from the northern Low Countries were present and making beer in England from at least 1399 and probably even earlier. It seems more likely that the beer brewers were attracted by a lack of competition rather than by anything else. On the evidence of imports and the number of individuals selling beer recorded in courts leet of different towns, England was a growing market: beer was becoming increasingly popular, and no native brewer possessed the skills of beer making. The Dutch beer brewers who settled in English towns were few in number and taxation levels were low in the years after beer production was introduced, which allowed the Dutch to acquire a larger share of the market and capital. In comparison, in Gouda alone in 1370, there were at least 87 active beer brewers.117 Emigration to England may well have been economically attractive to those at the lower end of the brewing hierarchy in Dutch towns. Indeed, some Dutch brewers fared well and developed wider business networks. One of them, Rumbald Heryessone, based at Ipswich, was a leading beer brewer in that town during the 1430s and his contacts and activity were far from limited to the confines of Suffolk.118 By 1440, he was wealthy enough to own a ship ‒ which was captured by pirates.119 With London merchants Michael de Halde and William Kervere, he made two bonds in 1445, one in £6 and another in 5 marks, but had not paid either.120 Closer to home, he distributed beer and other goods to Bury St Edmunds and Cambridge.121 Another beer brewer, Peter Harrison from Kingston upon Hull, seems to have had strong links with Londoners and handled substantial sums of money. In the Court of Common Pleas, Peter stated and provided proof that on 18 October 1455 William Ryther, a knight, made a bond with him in London in £95 10s. 6d., but had not paid anything, to his damage in the sum of £40.122 An immigrant from Brabant, Edmund Hermanson, who worked as a beer brewer in Colchester between 1460 and 1480, was wealthy enough to endow one of the town’s chantries.123 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 Unger, Beer Renaissance, 90–1. Unger, Beer Renaissance, 92. Unger, Beer Renaissance, 92. Kerling, Commercial Relations, 114. Unger, Beer Renaissance, 82. Amor, Late Medieval Ipswich, 155–6. Amor, Late Medieval Ipswich, 155–6. TNA, CP 40/746, m. 517d. CP 40/748, m. 38. CP 40/800, m. 187d. Britnell, Growth and Decline, 197. JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY 299 Through the cases from the Court of Common Pleas and other documents, we can observe that beer brewing depended on the availability of capital and that the number of brewers is no guide to the volume of production relative to that of ale.124 One brewer with a substantial amount of capital could produce a significant amount of the beer for a population, so it is not significant if, for example, the town of Ipswich did not have a multitude of men engaged in beer brewing. That trade was organised in a way similar to that in the Low Countries certainly helped some of them to become successful entrepreneurs. Unger argued that the clustered organisation of beer producers in Dutch towns led to greater efficiency, as working close together made the transfer of information, both commercial and technical, as well as access to raw materials significantly easier.125 The evidence suggests that beer brewers clustered around one neighbourhood in each English town as well. In Ipswich for example, the Dutch beer brewers settled exclusively in the East Ward near the docks, presumably providing them with access to raw materials before anyone else.126 In Colchester they lived at Hythe, the part of the town with quays on the River Colne, giving them direct contact with ships coming from overseas.127 The new arrivals and their product encountered some resistance both from the authorities and the native population. For example in 1421, the juries in Ipswich fined Geoffrey Pape for throwing the waste from beer production into the water, causing a bad smell.128 In Great Yarmouth, Peter Woutersone was fined over several years for leaving ordure and putrid debris in the ‘Stakes’ within the town’s walls and not keeping the area in the lane outside his house clean.129 As none of the native residents of these towns was ever fined in this way for the brewing of ale, it seems that the aliens were targeted specifically by the local authorities. However, the most direct voices against beer brewers from the Low Countries came from the capital. In 1424, the brewers’ guild complained against the aliens who settled in the city, that they brewed beer and sold it retail.130 This complaint was probably against unfranchised immigrants and was not aimed at those already admitted into the freedom and the fraternity. Immigrants from the Low Countries were even made scapegoats when the Burgundian duke decided to side with the French in 1436 and anti-alien feeling in the English capital ran particularly high. The event provoked suspicion that Dutch residents were unfavourable to the English cause and the rumour was spread that their beer was poisonous, which resulted in attacks on their breweries in the City.131 Shortly after, Copyn Pylgryme, a servant of William Beerman, brought a case against the mayor of London for failing to capture Robert Marston, who was allegedly involved in an ‘anti-Flemish’ riot.132 Eventually, the Crown issued a writ to the sheriffs of London with an order to protect the beer brewers from Holland and Zeeland from further harassment.133 Interestingly, about a century earlier, when beer was introduced 124 Richard Britnell came to similar conclusions in Colchester: Growth and Decline, 198. Unger, Beer Renaissance, 88. 126 SROI, C/2/8/1/3‒7. 127 Britnell, Growth and Decline, 196–7. 128 SROI, C/2/8/1/5 (East Ward): ‘Galfridus Pape proiecit in acquas portus sordes feces et draff bier unde odor potentissimus et insurgit ad nocumentum populi et destructionem et exaltacionem portus.’ In Colchester, exactly the same fine was handed to a beer brewer from Brabant, Peter Harrison: Britnell, Growth and Decline, 197. 129 NRO, Y/C 4/114, m. 17; Y/C 4/117, m. 9 : ‘ponit fimum et coruptionem ipse muros ville infra les Stakes ad noc … et non mundificat eandem venellam iuxta mansionem suam.’ 130 GL, MS 5440, f. 122. 131 Luu, Immigrants and Industries, 264. 132 TNA, C 1/45/124. 125 300 M. PAJIC in Holland from Hamburg, it had met similar resistance from local brewers.134 In England, support from the Crown and City authorities enabled alien beer brewers to advance their cause in London and elsewhere. In 1441, the king issued letters patent by which two searchers were appointed to check the quality of hopped beer produced throughout the country.135 By 1464, the alien beer brewers even managed to obtain their own ordinances; and in 1493 they formed a separate guild from London brewers.136 However, by this stage, beer brewing had become so popular that the native beer brewers were now more numerous than the immigrants, and thus the Dutch, who had introduced and dominated the trade, became a minority within it. Conclusion The diffusion of beer brewing in England and its rise in popularity was a relatively slow process. It took almost a century from the moment it was introduced as an imported commodity and consumed largely by immigrants, before it came to be produced on English soil and accepted by the natives. By the sixteenth century, beer had become an even more popular drink than ale and numerous Englishmen were engaged in its production.137 It is important to note that the entire process from the introduction of beer to its popularisation was influenced and led exclusively by an alien community from the Low Countries, a minority who emigrated to England and plied their trade with little competition. As beer had better keeping qualities than ale, it was adopted quickly by the Crown to supply its soldiers stationed on the Continent, and also by the native population. The first beer brewers from Holland and Zeeland took advantage of these opportunities and settled in several English towns at the end of the fourteenth century. They initiated a new trade, which required a slightly different set of skills to ale brewing. Although they met with some resistance, and were even scapegoated as poisoners in the context of war, the growth in beer drinking and production was not inhibited as the immigrant community enjoyed protection from the king, who had definitely seen the potential of the trade. The import of beer itself was widely replaced by the import of hops, for use in production locally in England; but in the long run the growing popularity of beer reduced the significance of the Dutch community to a minority within the trade that they had initiated and dominated. Note on contributor Milan Pajic is a Junior Research Fellow at St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge. His research considers the economic impact of movements of artisans in later medieval Europe, focusing particularly on the dynamic urban cultures of the medieval Low Countries, England and France. 133 R.R. Sharpe, ed., Calendar of Letter-Books Preserved among the Archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall: Letter Book K (London: Corporation of the City of London, 1911), 205. 134 Luu, Immigrants and Industries, 265. 135 Calendar of Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office: Henry VI, vol. 4: A.D. 1441–1446 (London: H.M.S.O., 1908), 184–5. 136 R.R. Sharpe, ed., Calendar of Letter-Books Preserved among the Archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall: Letter Book L (London: Corporation of the City of London, 1912), 53. 137 Luu, Immigrants and Industries, 292–3.