The brewing industry in Santander at the shade of the Indias market

Abstract

The eighteenth-century Bourbon reformism established, among other measures, the Reglamento y Aranceles Reales para el Comercio Libre de España a Indias in 1778. This circumstance prompted the establishment of three large breweries in Santander for export to the Spanish American colonies. Hemeroteca sources offer an approach to its export figures between 1785 and 1804, which are in line with those made by Isabel Miguel López. These new sources let also know the main ports of destination, the few exports from the rest of mainland ports and a comparison between the price of beer of Santander in Cantabrian and Mexican markets. A new contribution of this article discusses the circumstances of the dissolution of the “estanco” of beer in Madrid in 1791, after a century and a half of existence, through the pressure of brewers and Cantabrian institutions.