The Canadian Brewing Industry's Response to Prohibition, 1874-1920

The Canadian Brewing Industry’s Response to Prohibition, 1874-1920 Matthew J Bellamy The prohibitionist are putting us out of terms of the nation-forming British North business, so that we have lost heavily.1 America Act of 1867, the provinces had the constitutional power to prohibit the A.E. Cross, Calgary Brewing and retail sale of intoxicating drink. This vast Malting Co., 1916 power was first exercised by Canada's smallest province, Prince Edward Island; At the dawn of the twentieth century, its prohibition period lasted the longest - prohibition became part of a broader from 1901 to 1948. Nova Scotia was impulse in North American and Nordic the next Canadian province to jump countries to regulate the production and aboard the wagon (1916 to 1930), then consumption of alcoholic beverages. In came Ontario (1916 to 1927), Alberta some nations the ‘noble experiment’ last- (1916 to 1924), Manitoba (1916 to 1923), ed longer than in others. For instance, in Saskatchewan, (1917-1925), New the Russian Empire and Soviet Union Brunswick (1917 to 1927), British prohibition existed from 1914 to 1925; in Columbia (1917 to 1921), and the Yukon Iceland it lasted from 1915 to 1922; in Territory (1918-1921). Newfoundland, Norway it remained a sobering fact of life which was not part of Canada at that for eleven years (1916-1927); in Finland time, imposed prohibition in 1917 and prohibition was enforced from 1919 to repealed it in 1924. Quebec's experiment 1932 - thirteen long years, the same with banning the sale of all alcoholic amount of time that it existed in the drinks, in 1919, lasted only a few months. United States (1920 - 1933). Quebec has always been an exceptional case in Canadian history. The Protestant In Canada, due to division of powers moral urge towards prohibition that between the central and provincial gov- existed in English Canada was simply ernments, prohibition lasted longer in not evident in the predominantly French- some regions than in others. Under the speaking and Roman Catholic province of Quebec. While the temperance acts in each of * This article has undergone peer review. the Canadian provinces varied, they 2 Journal of the Brewery History Society generally closed legal drinking establish- thousands of well-paying jobs disap- ments and forbade the sale of alcohol for peared; and the civil liberties of thirsty beverage purposes and its possession Canadians were restricted. Yet all this and consumption except in a private might all have been avoided had the dwelling. Under the terms of the provin- brewers waged a better war against the cial legislation brewers could legally sell prohibitionists. their product outside the province, as inter-provincial trade was a federal It has long been the position of social authority. This created a loophole that and political historians alike that prohibi- was exploited by a handful of more tion was destined to become a factor in industrious brewers. But in March of Canadian life during the early twentieth 1918, the loophole was pulled tightly century. Business historians generally shut when the newly elected federal gov- agree, concentrating their studies - to ernment of Robert Borden stopped, for the limited extent that they exist in the duration of the first world war and Canada - on the efforts of brewers to one year thereafter, the manufacture and overcome the obstacles presented dur- importation of ‘intoxicating drinks’ into ing the prohibition era.3 The existing provinces where purchases were historiography is without exception com- illegal.2 As of 1918, therefore, Canada plimentary of the endeavours of had gone dry. Canadian brewers and their ability to survive during this ‘difficult’ period. The Prohibition had a devastating effect on consensus, therefore, is that brewers the Canadian brewing industry. Whereas ‘made the most of their opportunities.’ once there were scores of small local brewers, by the end of the prohibition era The following paper challenges the exist- only a few large beer companies re- ing historiography. Contrary to the mained. Bottom feeders like Edward established position, the paper argues Plunkett Taylor - later dubbed Excess that the unwillingness and inability of Profits Taylor by his critics - used the the brewing industry to organize itself opportunity of prohibition to capture and lobby effectively as well as its failure assets at rock-bottom prices and to to reach out to other anti-prohibitionists construct large breweries that could cap- in society (e.g. labour) was as much a italize on modern production techniques factor in the onset and continuation of and advertising. By 1935, Taylor's com- prohibition of beer as the actions of pro- pany, Canadian Breweries, was twenty hibitionists. Had the brewers been better times the size of most turn-of-the-century organized, less defensive, and more breweries and represented a new post- strategically minded perhaps they could prohibition reality. As a result of prohibi- have had their product - ‘a temperance tion, the fortunes of many Canadian drink’ - exempted from prohibitionist brewers evaporated. Legacies were lost; legislation. Brewery History Number 132 3 The Canadian brewing Industry at the Scotia, 1 in Prince Edward Island, 36 in turn of the century British Columbia, 4 in the Yukon Territory, and 61 in Ontario. The Canadian brewing By the end of the nineteenth century, the industry had large investments in hotels, brewing industry was an established and saloons, factories, equipment, casks and vibrant concern in Canada, although from other real assets. It also paid out more an international perspective it was still than $2 million a year for various supplies relatively small. In 1892 the number of and services, including $817,350 in breweries was 125.4 Ten years later the wages. Canadian brewers employed number had increased slightly to 133. 1,977 individuals directly and paid There were breweries in every province about $1 million in excise and custom across the land: 18 in the province of duties.5 In comparison, the manufactur- Quebec, 2 in New Brunswick, 4 in Nova ers of iron and steel products employed Country Production Output per Breweries capita Germany 1,464,839,000 26.01 3,544 United States 1,224,555,000 16.07 1,886 England and Wales 1,157,283,684 35.88 155 Ireland 109,873,000 24.60 36 Scotland 82,405,728 18.57 125 Netherlands 49,532,518 9.70 494 Italy 31,873,508 1.00 99 Canada 25,108,254 4.73 131 New Zealand 7,376,004 8.92 74 Table 1. National production (imperial gallons), Beer production per capita, and number of Breweries in 1900 Sources. Wilson, R.G. and Gourvish, T.R. (1988) The Dynamics of the International Brewing Industry since 1800. Routledge: London and New York, pp. 31, 40, 77, 116 and 191, 249; Donnachie, I. (1998) A History of the Brewing Industry in Scotland. John Donald: Edinburgh, table 56, p. 150; Anon. (1903) One Hundred Years of Brewing: A Complete History of the Progress made in the Art, Science and Industry of Brewing in the World, particularly during the Nineteenth Century. H.S.Rich: New York, p. 616. 4 Journal of the Brewery History Society 4,110 workers and paid out $1,693,542 (Guelph, Ontario). Two of these firms in wages, while lumber product man- would not survive prohibition. Canadian ufacturers paid out $2,689,864 to their breweries were getting bigger, although 2,075 employees.6 While by no means they were not yet the massive firms that Canada’s most significant industry, they would become after the Second brewing played an important part in World War. Nor were they anywhere near Canadian economic life. as big as their international counterparts. In 1900, for example, Labatt and Carling The output of the brewing industry had combined to produce 1,000,000 gallons increased steadily since Confederation. of beer.11 In comparison, that same In 1867, 137 breweries produced year Ireland's single largest brewer, 6,843,000 gallons of malt liquor. By Guinness, manufactured over 74,000,000 1900, an almost identical number of brew- gallons of malt liquor. In the United eries (131) manufactured over twenty- States, Anheuser-Busch produced over five million gallons of beer.7 30,000,000 gallons of beer. Admittedly these numbers paled in The increase in beer production over the comparison to those of the great beer- last quarter of the nineteenth century - in producing nations at the turn of the cen- Canada and elsewhere - was due in large tury (see Table 1). In 1900, England and measure to technological developments. Wales produced over a billion gallons of For example, new refrigeration process- beer.8 That same year, 1,816 brewers in es, such as ice-making equipment and the United States manufactured 1.2 bil- ammonia-based refrigerators, permitted lion gallons of the beverage, while year round beer production. In addition, German brewers produced 1.4 billion machinery for filtering the beer under gallons of malt liquor. And although pressure speeded up the entire produc- Canada had a larger population in 1900 tion process. Finally, in larger plants, (5.3 million Canadians compared to 5.1 bottles were no longer filled by hand, but million Dutch), the Netherlands produced moved quickly through sterilizing equip- twice the amount of beer.9 ment and along conveyor belts to be filled and then sealed automatically with The number of Canadian breweries a crown cap. declined from 135 to 117 between 1900 and 1911. Despite this, output remained Brewers were producing more, and beer relatively constant at roughly 24,000,000 drinkers were correspondingly consum- gallons per annum.10 The largest ing larger amounts of their favourite Canadian brewers at the turn of the brand of beer - be it a Labatt's Pale Ale, century were Dow and Dawes (Montreal, Carling's Canada Club Lager or Grant Quebec), Carling (London, Ontario), Springs Brewery Ale which the owners Labatt (London, Ontario) and Sleeman proclaimed: ‘gratifies the taste, refresh- Brewery History Number 132 5 Country 1875-79 1880-84 1885-89 1890-94 1895-99 1900-04 England & Wales 40.50 33.60 32.50 33.40 34.50 34.30 Germany n.a.

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