The Sun.
London, England, 1823-07-10 00:00:00

LITERARY NOTICE.

The PAST, PRESENT, and PROBABLY the FUTURE
STATE of the WINE TRADE ; proving that an Increase
of Duty caused a Decrease of Revenue, &c. &c. &c. By
JAMES WMIIIE-4823.

We have examined this Pamphlet with a feel-
ing of satisfaction, which has been not a little en-
hanced by the well-grounded expectation which
it affords, that the arithmetic, the logic, and the
humour of its Author will materially contribute
to enable us one day to enjoy our bottle of ex-
cellent Port at the moderate rate of 28s. or 30s.
per dozen ! Mr. wARItE Is himself a veteran in
the Wine Trade, having,by his own account, been
an importer of Wines from Portugal, Brazil, and
other countries, for nearly half a century. If we
may judge from the following joyous specimen of
his style, and the humorous air with which he
expresses his sovereign contempt far the " miser-
able bottle', no bigger than a vinegar cruet,"
which is so often seen to " disgrace the table of a
coffee-house,"—for the mere tasters of wine, in-
cluding " the field officer," whose limited means
compel him to " stint himself to a single glass of
Port or Sherry,"L—and for the whole tribe of "soda
water and ginger beer drinkers," and of the " un-
fortunate individuals with disorganized stomachs,
who cannot drink wine," and the " water-pre-
scribing doctors," who, however, it seems, gene-
rally 64 instruct by precept rather than by ex-
ample,"—we shall be warranted in inferring that
Mr.. WA altE'll importations have not been entirely
on account of the community, but that a due pro-
portion of choice samples has been occasionally
reserved for his own use, and for that of his im-
mediate friends :.
"As to the opinion entertained by some people, that wine is
gone out of fashion, that our habits are changed, that soda
water and ginger beer are now our only drink, it is a mistake ;
it is the price, not inclination, that compels abstinence. Most
true it is, that there are some unfortunate individuals, with dis-
organized stomachs, who cannot drink wine ; others are male
the influence of water-prescribing doctors, who fancy they gain
celebrity thy the singularity of their prescriptions; doctors,
however, frequently instruct by precept rather than by ex-
ample. I remember :whet, tar-water was all. the fashion :
health could not be preserved unless the' stomach was as• well
saturated with tar as the hold of a 'hip.
In proof' that the consumption of wine' will again increase, if
the price Is reduced, I refer to the account, Appendix C, which
shews that the additional duties- from 1778 to 1781 had reduced
the consumption to 16,000 tuns per annum. Wine might then
be supposed.to have gone more out of fashion than at present,
.but on reference to that account it will be seen, that the reduc-
tion of the duty in 1786 had' immediate effect, for the consump-
tion the very next year increased nearly 10,000 tuna, or about
half more than it was;. and, moreover, annually progressively
increased, so that in a very short time it amounted to upwar4,
of 35,000 tuns in Great Britain ; and would, perhaps, now
(taking oute Very great increase of population into consideration)
have been double that quantity, had it not been checked by
the 'impolitic duties imposed.
That the present state of society is much improVed, .is not
denied : happily, inebriety is not the vice of the age. It is not,
however, those who indulge in occasional debauch, nor your
three-bottle men,' that affect the general consumption of wine,
for they are but few in number ; it is the daily, though perhaps
small consiimption of the middling classes of society, the coffee
and chop-house frequenters, that promotes the revenue. They
cannot, or will net, pay six shillings, and at some houses seven
shillings, for a bottle of' wine : but, let the price of wine be re-
duced to three shillings for a bottle of. Port, and, provided the
prke is net Surreptitiously kept up in Portugal by means whiaf
1 have already stated, but the fair and natural course of trade
be permitted, I know that, upon die reduction of duty I shall
propose, Port wine might or ought to be sold at that price, and
afford ample remuneration to the farmer, the exporter, the mer-
chant, and retailer, and that a pipe of Port 'night be laid in at
a much lower rate,---no doubt need be entertained that the con-
sumption would be equal to what, it was in Great Britain and
Ireland in the year 1803. If wine. was restored to nearly the
price it was at that period, it would not want etisterhers ;—We
should no longer hear that, at a celebrated and: highly distin-
guished society, a field.officce stints himself to a single glass of
Port or Sherry, though he reindfribers that his allowance, when
an ensign, was the third of a bottle l—we should no longer see
a miserable bottle no bigger than a vinegar-cruet disgrace the
table-of a coffee-house !'
But we must not leave the Reader to ittlag.invi
1 from the foregoing sample',. that the whole of tlre
pamphlet is composed in the same exhilerating
strain. Mr. WA.ILRE, ass fervent admirer of the
juice of the grape, has his Micitnents of jocularity;
but as a man of business he also knows very well
that it is neither by cracking an extra joke, nor
an extra bottle, that his favourite project of ob-
taining an effective reduction of the Wine Duties
is to be accomplished. His work, therefore,
!very properly consists chiefly of sober reasoning
upon solid data, and of a formidable array of
dommientary proofs and dry calculations, which
incontrovertibly establish his grand position, via.
that an increase of duty causes a deCrease of re-
venue, whilst 6, decrease of duty, on the other
hanth,-occasions an increase of revenue. We can-
not better give an idea of the method which he
has adopted for this purpose, than by tran-
scribing the Table of Contents prefixed to the
Pamphlet :
CONTENTS.

31eworial adaresscd to the Right Honourable the PreiJidenl
and Members of the Board of Trade.
Postscript.

APPENNIX AND VOUCHERS.

A. arid 11.—,An Account of the Import and Export of all
Wines from 1780 to 1020, with an Estimate of the-Anneal
Consumption at the different periods when any Alteration
took place-in duties.
C. An Account of Wines imported in 1784; 1785,1786; corm
pared with 1788, 1789, 1790. •
D. An Estimate of the Annual and Daily Average Consump-
tion of the different kinds of Wine in Great Britain, Ire,
land, and Scotland.
E. An Account of Revenue derived from Wine 1801 to 1803,
compared With 1819 to 1821, strewing a diminution in the
latter period of £1,061,530. •
F. An Account of the Quantity of Foreign Wine imported in
the same periods, also thawing a diminution of 60,419 tuns.
G. An Account of the Average Produce per Annum of Bo-
venue, Trade, and Rate of Duties,—chewing Increase of
Duty, and Decrease of Revenue and Trade.
li. Extract of Memorial to Lord North, when First Lord of
the Treasury, 1783.
I. Ditto to Chancel:l6r of Exchequer, March 1815.
K. Second-Ditto to Ditto, March
1.4. An Account of the Product; of Alto Douro, from 1779.
M. An Account of Export of Wines firom Oporto from 167(1,
with a Report of the reputed Quality of the respective Vin-
tages from 1771.
N. An Account of the Importation of every Species of Wine
into Great Britian from the year 1097. • •
0. An Account of Duties on Wine from .12th of Charles IL
1672, specifying the Rate and Amountin each Reign.
• In short, all persons who are desirous of
rtaining the precise effect which various
,degrees
'of taxation have had upon the consumption of
foreign wines in this country, will Gad in Me
tables which Mr.' N'VanitE has, evidently with
much assiduity and labour, prepared for his corn
..•
itrehettsive pamphlet upon the subject, all the in-
formation (anti that too of the most authentic
description,) which is necessary for putting them
in possession of the object of their inquiry.
Though we so fur agree with the views of the.
author, as to be of opinion, with him, that a re.
duction of . the Wine Duties would be beneficial
to the revenue, and, to the fOreign cOMmerce of
the country, it is necessary that ave. should ex-
press our decided dissent from the notions which
he seems to entertain respecting frecdOm of trade,

and some others of the visionary theoretical pro-
positions of the modern and spurious school of
Political Economy. Indeed, we would almost
require to he assured that no injurious conse-
quences would result to the producers of the Cape
wines, before we gave our hearty assent to such
a reduction of the duties on foreign wines as is
proposed by Mr. WARRe.