It was in 1477 that the municipal authorities forbade breweries from transporting beer within the boundaries of Bruges. At the same time, they created the guild of ‘biervoerders’ (beer carriers). The purpose was to control tax evasion. Tax on beer was the main source of income for a city. For example, at the end of the 16th century, these taxes
represented more than 60 % of the receipts of the city of Antwerpen. Because beer was the normal beverage for every one, with an average consumption of more than a half gallon per head per day, taxing beer was a guaranteed source of income for a city.
It must have been a picturesque spectacle in the streets of the inner cities, two men carrying a cask of beer, fixed to long poles resting on their shoulders. Not only the local brewers had to use their services, also the brewers from surrounding areas and the importers, who delivered beer to Bruges, stopped at the gates of the city and gave their loads to the carriers. The carriers had a typical uniform, with the logo of their guild, two casks, embroidered on the front and the back. The president of the guild was named ‘king’.

He had 5 deputies, one for every section of Bruges. Every month, a drawing of lots indicated to which section of the city each beer carrier-team was appointed. Each member of the guild was constrained to face certain obligations, that won them the appreciation of the brewers for their efficiency and their strict neutrality in respect of the different beers that they were appointed to transport. For the carriers, beer was only a merchandise like any other, and they were wise enough to remain outside the rivalries which prevailed between their clients.

A document of 1650 teaches us that a new member of the guild had to pay a certain sum of money, and had to donate a cask of beer during a feast he had to organize to celebrate his entry in the trade. The organization of trades in brotherhoods or guilds, was an early form of social security. Each day, work completed, the carriers met together in their local ‘thuyscken op de markt’ (the little house on the marketsquare) to submit to the paymaster the receipts of their deliveries. At the end of the month, the distribution of profits took place, and all carriers received an identical sum, even those who had been forced to interrupt their work during the month on account of illness.
It was only at the beginning of the 20th century, that the independent carriers disappeared and were replaced by the lorries of the breweries. The guild of the beer carriers was one of the rare guilds, holding a monopoly, that had survived the French Revolution

Newsletter November 2000