La Fábrica de Cerveza de San Miguel Receives a Brewing Concession in Manila

On March 14, 1890, Enrique María Barretto de Ycaza received a Spanish royal patent granting exclusive rights for twenty years to produce beer in the Philippines. The concession supported La Fábrica de Cerveza de San Miguel, whose mechanized Manila brewery used refrigeration to make beer locally rather than depend entirely on imported supplies. The event belongs to the history of colonial privilege as well as industrial brewing. San Miguel subsequently became a major Philippine producer, but the original grant was a state-backed commercial concession rather than a modern patent based on examination of a novel brewing invention.