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Too Little Regulation? The British Market for Sherry, 1840–90

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 47; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00076790500055988

1743-7938

James Simpson,

Horticultural and Viticultural Research

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes The traditional area of sherry production is Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barraneda and Puerto de Santa María, although for brevity I shall refer to this region as that of Jerez. G.B. Wilson, Alcohol and the Nation (London, 1940); B.R. Mitchell, Abstract of British Historical Statistics (Cambridge, 1962), pp.392–5. R. Davis, ‘The English Wine Trade in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries’, Annales Cisalpines d'histoire sociale, Vol.3 (1971), pp.87–106; J. Nye, ‘The Myth of Free-Trade Britain and Fortress France: Tariffs and Trade in the Nineteenth Century’, Journal of Economic History, Vol.51 (1991), pp.23–46. Wines from British possessions, essentially Cape wines, paid half duty. G.R. Porter, The Progress of the Nation (London, 1847 edn.), p.570. J.E. Tennent, Wine, its Use and Taxation (London, 1855), p.28. Ibid., p.152. After 1831, duties on wine imports peaked in 1857, when it represented about ten per cent of revenue from liquor. It then declined during the rest of the century, although the fall was partly offset by growing revenue from licences; Wilson, Alcohol. However, the dynamic gains from trade specialisation after 1860 would have more than made up for the decline in wine duties. Rates changed in 1860, and then again in 1861, but those introduced in 1862 lasted until 1886. A. Briggs, Wine for Sale: Victoria Wine and the Liquor Trade, 1860–1984 (London, 1985), p.37. Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, 10 Feb. 1860, cited in ibid., p.11. French wines were often mixed with Spanish wines, which in turn had been strengthened with alcohol, but most remained under 26 degrees proof (Table 2). A.D. Francis, The Wine Trade (London, 1972), p.300. C. Redding, A History and Description of Modern Wines (London, 1833), p.191. Ibid., p.322. J. Burnett, Plenty and Want. A Social History of Food in England from 1815 to the Present Day (London, 1989, 3rd edition), chapter 5; and Parliamentary Papers, Report from the Select Committee on Adulteration of Food (1855, viii), First Report (432), pp.1–45. It was claimed in this report that wine adulteration in the United Kingdom was equivalent to 20 per cent of wine imports; ibid., Second Report (480), p.35. M. French and J. Phillips, Cheated not Poisoned? Food Regulation in the United Kingdom, 1875–1938 (Manchester, 2000), pp.36–7. The act allowed local authorities to inspect retail outlets, but not manufacturers. The three Acts of Parliament between 1860 and 1872 had failed to provide an efficient legal basis to combat adulteration of food and drink. Ibid., p.4. Parliamentary Papers, Report from the Select Committee on Adulteration of Food Act (1872) (1872, vi), pp.206 and 213; see note 30. Ridley's Wine and Spirit Review (hereafter Ridley's) (May 1860), p.5. For the area of vines, see especially A. López Estudillo, ‘La vid y los viticultores de Jerez, la crisis comercial y el impacto de la filoxera: un campo abierto a la investigación’, Revista de Historia de Jerez, No.1 (1992), pp.50–53; J. Simpson, ‘La Producción de vinos en Jerez de la Frontera’, in P. Martín Aceña and L. Prados de la Escosura (eds), La Nueva Historia Económica en España (Madrid, 1985), p.175; S. Zapata, ‘La producción agraria de Extremadura y Andalucía Occidental, 1875–1935’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1986). Ridley's, various years. A study in the 1880s estimates that more than half the wines of the region were exported, including virtually all the quality sherry, Archivo del Ministerio de Agricultura, legajo 82.2. Ridley's (Feb. 1860), p.5. In the mid-nineteenth century the minimum age when good sherry was exported was five or six years. Parliamentary Papers, Report from the Select Committee on Wine Duties (1878/79, vol.xiv), p.176 and Ridley's (April 1887), p.166. Parliamentary Papers, Wine Duties, p.169; see also p.119. Ridley's (Sept. 1867), p.2. J. Simpson, Selling to Reluctant Drinkers: The British Wine Market, 1860–1914, in preparation. Ridley's (Sept. 1863), p.16. George Ridley was subsequently given the Cross of the Order of Carlos III in 1870. Ibid. (March 1870), p.4. Quoted in C. Tovey, Wine Revelations (London, 1880). Jerez produced its own version of ‘Hamburg Sherry’ according to the British Consul's report of 1865: ‘During the past year large quantities of wines have been introduced into the district from Malaga and Alicante; but these wines have not proved serviceable or usable, their peculiar, earthy and tarry character being impossible to overcome; as, although mixed with other wines but in small quantities, the unpleasant flavour and “smell” is always distinguishable to a judge of wine.’ This did not stop the wines being used, however: ‘The low spirituous compounds are made up with molasses, German potato-spirit, and water; to which some colouring matter, and a small quantity of wine are added; much in the same manner that the “Hamburg-sherries” have been manufactured to which of late the London Custom-House has, very properly, refused admission.’ Parliamentary Papers, Consular Reports, Cadiz (1865, liii), p.657. N. Faith, Victorian Vineyard: Chateau Loudenne and the Gilbeys (London, 1983), p.12; Ridley's (Jan. 1877), p.3. ‘Castle’ was the brand name of Gilbey's. Given Gilbey's insistence on quality, it seems highly unlikely that its version was prejudicial to health. However, it created confusion for consumers. Parliamentary Papers, Wine Duties, p.149. T.W. Shaw, Wine, the Vine and the Cellar (London, 2nd edn. 1864), p.217. J. Busby, Journal of a Tour through Some of the Vineyards of Spain and France (Sydney, 1833), pp.13–14; Parliamentary Papers, Report from the Select Committee on Import Duties on Wines (1852, xvii), pp.708–47. Ridley's (July 1884), p.238. Parliamentary Papers, Wine Duties, pp.121, 122, 170 and 266. See especially J. Pan-Montojo, La bodega del mundo: La vid y el vino en España 1800–1936 (Madrid, 1994), pp.103–10. Parliamentary Papers, Wine Duties, p.143. Ibid., pp.26 and 182. Ibid., see especially pp.55 and 162. Ridley's (Feb. 1888), pp.58, 62 and 70; (Oct. 1888), p.474. Busby, Journal, p.3. J. Jeffs, Sherry (London, 1970), p.193. Ridley's (March 1892), p.165. P. Ponsot, Atlas de historia económica de la baja Andalucía: siglos XVI y XIX (Granada, 1986) gives an increase from slightly under 10 reales (2.5 pesetas) to 19 reales. In Cataluña wages increased from 2 pesetas to 2.2 pesetas; R. Garrabou and E. Tello, ‘Salario como coste, salario com ingreso: el precio de los jornales agrícolas en la Cataluña contemporánea, 1727–1930’, in J.M. Martínez Carrión, El nivel de vida en la España rural, siglos XVIII–XX (Alicante, 2002), p.629. For wages, see Simpson, La producción de vinos, pp.180–82. Social unrest is well documented in T. Kaplan, Anarchists of Andalusia, 1868–1903 (Princeton, NJ, 1977) and E. Montañes, Transformación agrícola y conflictividad campesina en Jerez de la Frontera, 1880–1923 (Cádiz, 1997). For Jerez, and the Gremio de Vinateros, see especially Pan-Montojo, La bodega del mundo, p.31 and J. Maldonado, La formación del capitalismo en el marco de Jerez (Madrid, 1999), pp.81–153. For port wine, see especially P. Duguid and T. da Silva Lopes, ‘Ambiguous Company: Institutions and Organizations in the Port Wine Trade, 1814–1834’, Scandinavian Economic History Review, Vol.XLVII (1999), pp.84–102. Ibid. K.M. Guy, ‘Wine, Work and Wealth: Class Relations and Modernization in the Champagne Wine Industry, 1870–1914’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1996). See, for example, the growers' journal, Revista Vinícola Jereza, begun in 1866. Death threats were noted in Ridley's (May 1871), p.7. For González Byass, see P. Férnandez-Pérez, ‘Challenging the Loss of an Empire: González & Byass of Jerez’, Business History, Vol.41 (1999), pp.72–87; Jeffs, Sherry, chapter 6 and E. Montañés, La empresa exportadora del Jerez. Historia Económica de González Byass, 1835–1885 (Cádiz, 2000). Domecq, for example, shipped large quantities of ‘light low’ wines in 1864 and 1865 which did not carry his brand. Ridley's (Feb. 1867), p.2. Likewise, Gilbey's imported unbranded sherry and white wine from González Byass. For the impact of this cheap wine trade on a shipper's profits, see especially Montañés, La empresa exportadora. Under pressure from the wine trade in London, this list was finally ended in 1878, Ridley's (Feb. 1878); see also (March 1871) and (Jan. 1874). For example, González Byass auctioned 2,500 butts of old sherry at the end of the nineteenth century because it was ‘considered in excess of requirements’. Ridley's (May 1895), p.304. See especially A. Cabral Chamorro, ‘Observaciones sobre la regulación y ordenación del mercado del vino de Jerez de la Frontera 1850–1935: los antecedentes del Consejo Regulador de la Denominación de Origen “Jerez-Xérès-Sherry”’, Agricultura y Sociedad, Vol.44 (1987), p.192. Ibid., pp.193–4. See M. Casson, ‘Brands. Economic Ideology and Consumer Society’, in G. Jones and N. Morgan (eds.), Adding Value: Brands and Marketing (London, 1994), pp.42–8. Gonzalez Byass & Co.'s 1878 price list for Cadiz, reproduced in Montañés, La empresa exportadora, p.264. Tio Pepe was introduced at the lower duty of 1s (£0.05) a gallon. Retail prices calculated from Table 1. G. Harrison, Bristol Cream (London, 1955), p.106 suggests 1882, and Harvey's 1867 price list, reproduced opposite p.115 does not mention Bristol Cream. However, Ridley's in 1880 (12 July, p.209) cites an auction of one of Harvey's customers where 22 dozen cases of ‘Dark Gold Sherry’, ‘Bristol Milk’, bottled December 1862, and 23 cases of ‘Old Pale Sherry’, ‘Bristol Cream’, also bottled in 1862, were sold. The average price of the Bristol Cream was over a pound a bottle. Ridley's (Sept. 1882), p.275. See Jeffs, Sherry, pp.93–6. Parliamentary Papers, Wine Duties, p.176. Ridley's (Nov. 1898), p.762. Pan-Montojo, La bodega del mundo, p.113. Ridley's (March 1892), p.163.