On the maltmen

“The recent Courier piece by Paul Malik was a little confusing,” writes Innes Duffus, Archivist to the Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee.

“The maltmen were not part of the three united trades of Dundee who were, in fact, the masons, wrights and slaters. The wrights included the glaziers in their number and so were only the building trades who did not join together until 1660.

“The three united trades were ‘pedicles’ of the Guildry, as were the maltmen, both being totally separate organisations. The maltmen paid a fee to the Guildry, of half their entry money, for every person entered as a master in their trade. The Guildry were then responsible for representing them on the local council.

They were not very good at that particular part of their responsibilities – indeed they tended to use the maltmen as a source of income without any benefit to the brewers.

“The maltmen were heavily taxed and Ballingall, a member of the council and later Provost, built his brewery outside the Royalty of the Burgh and had the benefit of avoiding this tax, giving him an advantage over the others. He also obtained the sole right to provide beer to the ships before they sailed.

“The brewers were not alone in being given a gallon of beer per day. Because of the contamination of the water in the wells it was part of the daily allowance for every trade. The beer was known as ‘small beer’ meaning that it contained 1% or less alcohol.

“There was a story that the town guard, having drunk their gallon of beer, were so drunk at 11am that General Monck was able to enter the town. However, a gallon of small beer would be less than two pints of most beers today and even if drunk all at once would not have affected their abilities.”

“I took this dramatic picture of the Tay Rail Bridge with the river like a mirror on my walk home from work last week,” says Alan Cormack.