as standing on quite as high a plane as the latter. In the malt-houses,
manual labour has in many places been replaced by machinery, pneumatic
drum malthouses, and mechanical green malt turners. In the brewery,
boiling with direct fire under the mash-tuns and brewing-pans has been
replaced by steam-boiling; greater production has been obtained in the
brewing by the employment of new mash-methods, the strainer-tanks
have been improved and, in some places, replaced by filter-presses, while
the amount of hops used has been reduced by the introduction of apparatus
for the crushing and sorting of the hops. In most of the large breweries,
cooling by means of natural ice has been superseded by the use of
cooling machines. But while, in the brewing industry, Sweden, as we
said above, has in the main followed the lead of Germany, in one point
the former country has adopted its own method, viz., that for the distribution
of the beer, the sale of the liquor from the barrel being replaced
by the sale in bottles. This method of sale has, too, made it necessary
to produce special apparatus for the cleansing, filling, and corking of the
bottles. Special mention may be made of the apparatus invented by
brewery-manager 1ST. M. Simonsson, brewery-master K. Simonsson, brew-
ery-manager S. Hyden, and engineer, J. K:son Lannmark. The disinfecting
medium for pans, tubes and hoses, antiformin, invented by engineer
V. Törnell and brewery-master A. Sjöö, is now very widely employed.
On account of the relatively limited market, there is notin Sweden any special
brewery-machmery industry, the plant required being taken mostly from
Germany. Wiklund s Mechanical Works, however, (which have now ceased to
exist) constructed a number of brewery-plants in Sweden. It is also worthy of
mention that cooimg-maehines are manufactured, by the Munktell Mechanical
Works, Eskdstuna, Tullgarn s Foundery and Mechanical Works, Uppsala and by
the Ludvigsberg Workshops, Stockholm, the last-named factory also turning out
breweries pumps Of late years, too, the Swedish Metal Works, Västeräs, has
begun _ the manufacture of aluminium fermenting vessels.
Excise on malt liquors was imposed in Sweden as early as the close of the
16th century and, during the course of time, have been submitted to various
modifications until in the middle of the 19th century, it was altogether removed
In consequence of the ever-increasing demands made on the State treasury
however a proposal was made at the beginning of the present century to rein-
troduce the taxation of malt-liquors. After lengthy committee-investigations, a
Bill to this effect was brought before the Biksdag of 1903, and on June 17 of
the same year, a law was issued concerning the manufacture and taxation of
malt hquors. According to this law, the breweries are divided into two classes:
those liable to the payment of excise and those exempt. The latter class
of breweries may only manufacture small-beer (Sw. svagdricka), by which is
meant a malt liquor which does not contain more than 2*/4 % by volume of
alcohol and is brewed with wort, which does not contain more than 6 ■% of extract
content (Balling). The scale in the amount of the excise was fixed as follows:
ore for the first 30 000 kg of malt manufactured during the working year (Oct
—isept.); 5 ore for the next 30 000 kg; 7 Öre for the next 40 000 kg' 9 Öre for
the next 50 000 kg; 11 Öre for the next 50 000 kg; and 12 Öre for all additional
malt, reckoned per kg. But in 1907 the lowest excise-rates were increased
partly to cover ,the expenses of control over the smallest breweries and partly to
prevent the establishment of new small breweries. These increased taxes were as
follows: 4 ore for the first 50 000 kg; 7 öre for the next 50 000 kg; 10 ore
for the next 50 000 kg, and 1-2 öre for all additional malt, reckoned per kg.
In 1909 the excise-rates were again raised and, at present, amount to 17 öre for
the first 100 000 kg; 20 öre for the next 100 000 kg, and 23 öre for all additional
malt, reckoned per kg. In the first excise-year, 1903/04, the excise
amounted to 2 845 922'19 kronor; after the second increase it amounted, for the
year 1907/08, to 3 031 442'83 kronor, for the year 1911/12, after deduction
of the restitution for smaU-beer malt (kr. 252 630’49) to 4 928 045'67 kr.,
and for the year 1912/1913, to 5 153 373'% Q— kr. 265 638'09) kronor respectively.
According to the reports issued for the manufacturing year, October 1911
—September 1912, by the Board of Control, the excise-duty amounted on
an average to 19'9 öre and, for 1912/13, to 20'1 öre per kg of malt employed.
The excise-rate, 23 öre per kg, is equal to not quite 2 öre pr Vs
liter-bottle of läger-beer. On the occasion of the last increase of the excise, in
1909, restitution was permitted for the malt which is employed directly for the
manufacture of small-beer at the breweries subject to the payment of excise.
This restitution of duty was fixed, at 14 öre per kg of malt, but was not to
extend to more than Vs of the entire quantity of malt employed at the brewery
during the manufacturing year. For the manufacture of malt-liquors liable to
excise there may be employed nothing but barley-malt, hops, yeast, and water,
and, on certain conditions, sugar-colouring. For porter, sugar and glucose may
also be employed. Saccharine or other similar sweetening material may not be
employed in the manufacture either of excisefree malt-liquors or of those that
are free from duty. Breweries that are excise-free pay a certain small fee as a
contribution to thé expenses of control.
The sale of malt-liquors. The regulations issued in 1885 concerning the sale
of wine and malt-liquors have, during the course of time, undergone various
changes in order to promote the cause of temperance. Among other things,
it was proposed that a fixed limit should be drawn between the malt liquors
containing a large percentage of alcohol and those containing a very small percentage
of spirit. After such a limit had been fixed by the regulation adopted
in 1903, .concerning the manufacture and taxation of malt liquors, the above
alteration became possible. On June 9, 1905, there was issued a new regulation
for the sale of wine and beer and also of manufactured alcohol-free liquors
and small-beer. Alterations in some o f the paragraphs of this regulation were
made on June 10, 1910. By these regulations the Governors of the various
Ians of Sweden have been given extensive powers to limit the sale of malt
liquors, and wide use has been made of the authority thus conferred.
Of the raw material employed, the barley is taken from Skäne, Gottland and
ölandj it is only in unfavourable years that there is any import of this grain
from Germany or Austria. On the other hand, all the hops employed are taken
chiefly from Bohemia and Bavaria. Of late years, however, attempts have been
made in Skâne to introduce the cultivation of hops, which, as a matter of fact,
have been grown since very ancient times in Sweden.
All the statistics concerning the Swedish brewery industry are more or less
incomplete. It is only after the introduction of the malt-tax that we obtain
fully reliable statistics, which are given in the annual reports of the Board
of Control. From these publications it is seen that the number of breweries
subject to the payment of duty has declined from 223 in the taxation-
year, October *1903—September 1904, to 190 during the taxation-year, October
1912—September 1913. The number of small-beer breweries has declined from
924 to 627 during the same period. In passing it may be mentioned that,