Cesky Akciovy Pivovar v C. Budejovicich (Czech Company Beer Budweiser ) 1895

Beautifully engraved certificate from the Cesky Akciovy Pivovar v C. Budejovicich . This historic document has an ornate border around it with an underprint of a King drinking Beer. This item has the hand signatures of the Company’s President, František Hromada. This Original Founder Share of the famouse BUDWEISER Brewery (Beer) Prague/Prag is very rare. The words Cesky Akciovy Pivovar v C. Budejovicich means Czech Company Beer Budweiser.

Company history found on the internet:

The Czech Joint-stock Brewery was the direct predecessor of today's Budweiser Budvar, was founded on 15th April 1895. The enterprise was formed through the initiative of Czech entrepreneurs who saw it as a business opportunity. At the end of the 19th century the beer brewing industry was enjoying remarkable growth in Bohemia, especially after the abolition in 1860 of a law which had permitted goods to be produced and sold in just a particular area. The closed and restricted number of licensed brewers in Budějovice's (then called Budweis) Měšt'anský brewery which prevented access to another investors was another reason for its foundation.

They therefore looked for other ways and a group of licensed Czech brewers (including August Zátka and František Hromada) initiated the founding of a new brewery in the form of a joint-stock company which in itself was unusual at the time. Amongst other things they also wanted to react to the strong economic influence of the Germans in the mixed nationality town of České Budějovice. In 1890 there were 16,271 Czechs and 11,117 Germans living in the town . And their coexistence was in no way ideal, mainly because the predominance in the number of Czechs was not at all reflected in the town laws. The voting law of the then Austro-Hungarian monarchy differentiated voters according to the amount of tax that they paid, and enabled the economically strong German minority to control the town hall.

The Czech Joint-stock Brewery (whose German name according to its articles was Böhmisches Action- Bräuhaus in Budweis) produced on 7th October 1895. When the first 100 hl of beer were brewed. By the end of its first year, i.e. by the end of September 1896, 51,100 hl of beer had been brewed in the brewery of which 35,224 hl had been sold. Nobody had expected this kind of success. Among the first customers were the Czech restaurant-owners and landlords in the town and the neighbouring area. However, even their nationalist tendencies would not guarantee regular consumption if customers did not get a good-quality drink. But it was this high quality which brought the brewery its first award as early as 1896 at the Industrial and Pharmaceutical Exhibition in Prague, followed the next year by a gold medal at the Food and Drink Exhibition in Stuttgart, and which has distinguished the brewery up until the present day and is part of its image. But it was not only its quality which increased the demand. The technical standard of all the major breweries at that time was roughly the same and so the quality of the various beers was relatively equal. Therefore price became the decisive factor.

Thanks to its sound management the enterprise consolidated its position relatively quickly and grew economically. A year later (1897) its circle of customers had grown significantly and the brewery's beer was also being sold in Prague, Vienna and Trieste. The brewery's economic prosperity also enabled it to provide financial support to Czech nationalist work in South Bohemia, for example, in the form of various gifts to Czech associations, in particular to the Educational Organisation and the Šumava National Union. Also the brewery restaurant and beer garden became a popular place of entertainment for the Czechs in Budějovice who knew that the brewery had been set up as a counter to and as competition for the Měšt'anský brewery which on the other hand was supported by the town's German inhabitants. The brewery prospered and produced more than twice as much beer as the Měšťanský brewery.

In the pre-war year of 1913 it brewed 200,140 hl, and beer from the Czech Joint-stock Brewery was known practically throughout the world. The Czech Joint-stock Brewery recovered relatively quickly from the damages caused to the Czech beer industry during the First World War (1914-1918) (for example the requisition of all malt reserves and a part of the copper equipment for war requirements) because it could fall back on its pre-war exports.

However, the brewery did not achieve its pre-war level of brewing capacity until 1928 and by the 1920's the brewery completely renewed its product range. The period between the wars (1918 - 1938) was a very successful one for the brewery. Further modernisation was carried out. Modern bottling equipment and pasteurising equipment was installed and the electrification of the enterprise was begun. At the end of the 1920's the brewery completely renewed its range. In between the wars further modernisation was carried out in the brewery including electrification . As part of this the brewery reconstructed the former Fellinger's mill into its own hydro-electric plant. In 1922 the first Artesian well, 196.7 metres deep, was dug in the brewery, in 1928 a second and in 1930 a third well, 300 metres deep, was dug. In this way the brewery acquired an inexhaustible source of the highest quality water which has become one of the reasons for the excellent and inimitable taste of the local beer. Not until 1931 did the amount of beer brewed drop below 200,000 hl and nor was production affected much by the great economic crisis at the end of the 1920's and beginning of the 1930's (the lowest amount of beer brewed at that time was 145,638 hl in 1936).

In the 1930's it exported beer to East Africa, North and Central America, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Guinea, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Java, Lithuania, Malaysia, Morocco, the Netherlands, the Palestine, Poland, Romania, Senegal, Sweden, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the Union of South Africa, and Yugoslavia. The upsurge in production and exports led to the registration of other trademarks: Český Budějovický granát in 1922, Budweiser Bier in 1925 and Budbräu in 1934. From 1935 the light and dark Crystal beers began to assert themselves on the foreign market. The brewery had the Budvar trademark registered from 1930.

Because its highest quality lager was primarily for export, Budvar soon began to be widely known abroad. Therefore on 14th May 1936 a change was made to the company's name. From that time the brewery was called Budvar - Český akciový pivovar České Budějovice (Budvar - Czech joint stock brewery - České Budějovice). After the end of prohibition in the United States the brewery started exporting there again. In 1937 it registered its trademark Imported Original Bohemian Budweiser Beer from Budweis City in the United States. The success of the brewery's beer on the US market led to new disputes with Anheuser-Busch.

At the beginning of 1939, after the signing of the Munich Agreement and a few days before the occupation of Czechoslovakia and with the threat of having its merchandise confiscated in the USA, it signed a new agreement which was extremely disadvantageous for both Budějovice breweries. During the Second World War control was taken from the board of directors and the Nazis took over the brewery (1942). After that, exports practically ceased with the exception of a few exports to Germany and its satellites.

After the Second World War, the Czech Joint-stock Brewery was nationalised. On 10th June 1948 according to the Food Minister's decree no. 1622 the property confiscated from the brewery was incorporated into the České Budejovicich breweries. On 30th August 1948 the Budejovicich breweries pivovary were renamed South Bohemian Breweries, national Enterprise in accordance with decree no. 2386. In 1967 the brewery was separated from it and set up as a separate legal entity Budweiser Budvar N.C. On account of its tradition, brand-name and the quality of its beer it was oriented towards exports. With this in mind a general reconstruction of the brewery was decided on in 1964. The original plan was for the reconstruction to be completed in 1982 by which time the enterprise's capacity should have increased from 300,000 to 650,000 and later to 830,000 hl of beer annually.

Unfortunately the modernisation had not been completed by 1982 when the brewery produced 396,800 hl instead of the planned 830,000 hl, nor was it ready in 1989. Even though the brewery was modernised (for example, new buildings for handling barrels, a new bottling room, bottling conveyor belts and pallet machines, a new brewing house enabling capacity to be doubled) the modernisation was never completed according to the original plans. The reasons were both the lack of money from the state resources and also problems with the project and the insufficient capacity of the general construction contractor . Budweiser Budvar had to wait until after the November Revolution (1989) for its real dynamic development and expansion.