Every savvy tenant knows the secret to a lower monthly rent payment — a long-term lease. Signing a two-year lease can knock a significant amount of money off your monthly rent payment.
But Arthur Guinness, the original brew master at the one and only Guinness Brewery in Dublin, was a lease signing genius! Why?
Back in 1759, the very confident, or dangerously narcissistic, 34-year-old brew master signed a lease on the four-acre abandoned St. James’s Gate Brewing Company at £45 per annum ($50 a year). Yep, that is per year. But here comes the cool part. The optimistic brewer leased the place for 9,000 years.
Spelled out, it looks even more impressive. Nine thooooooousand years. See?
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The abandoned brewery included some old brewing equipment, a mill, two malt houses, stabling for 12 horses, and a loft for 200 tons of hay.
The owner of St. James’s Gate Brewery initially asked for £100 as a down payment. But, Arthur, the haggler that he was, somehow managed to strike a deal.
Since then, the St. James’s Gate area has been home to Guinness. With an annual output of 1.2 million barrels, it became the largest brewery in Ireland in 1838 and the largest in the world by 1886.
The lease is no longer in effect, though, since the brewery bought out the property when it expanded beyond the original 4-acres.
Arthur Guinness was a visionary brewmaster, but was no slouch in the finance department either.
Check out this video for more hoppy details. (Nope. I’m not sorry about that at all.)
