The Butter Exchange
The Butter Exchange in Cork was established in 1769. A butter market was on the site of the modern butter exchange in Shandon since the first quarter of the 1700s but it was only in 1769 that, what became known as the Cork Butter Exchange, was established on the site of the butter market in Shandon in cork.
From that date, the Butter Exchange was regulated by the Committee of Merchants, a body of local merchants who took an interest in all aspects of the trade of the town. It is not clear why they decided to formalise and regulate the butter trade when they did but it proved to be one of the most successful enterprises in the city, justly known as the largest butter market in the world.
Artefacts
Early Ireland
What made the Butter Exchange in Cork distinctive was its concern with what we would now call quality control. Butter inspectors would assess each barrel, correctly called a firkin, of butter that was presented to the Exchange by the butter maker or their agents. The inspectors were then grade the butter from 1st (the best) to 6th (the worst).
The inspectors were looking for common sense features, such as a good colour, a good smell, no evidence of excess salt or excess moisture. (It must be remembered that at food the main food preservative). Each firkin was then marked with the appropriate grade and sold on that basis. To guard against bribery or other corruption of the butter inspectors, each of the six inspectors was allotted his section of the market on a daily basis, chosen by lot. This system, combined with the natural quality of Munster butter, gave Cork butter what we would now call a global brand identity, fetching a premium price.
Quality
While we, in modern times, take the quality control of food as a given, in the late 18th century the monitoring of the quality of the food being was a radical innovation. Cork may even the first place that that quality control in food was attempted.
The corporate exchange was truly a commercial phenomenon. At its peak, in the early 1880s, some 440,000 Firkins of butter passed through the Cork Butter Exchange. From Cork the butter went to all parts; Africa, Australia, America, as well as the main market, England.
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Quality
The emergence, in the 1880’s, of butter making technology that allowed for the creation of a milder, less salted butter, began the decline of the Cork Butter Exchange. The milder butter proved more popular with consumers than the heavily salted Cork butter. The Exchange staggered on until its closure in 1924 but its day had long passed by then. The Exchange’s impressive portico entrance, which still survives, nonetheless continues speaks to the power and importance what was once a behemoth of Irish trade.
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