The morning call., 1890-04-03
THE PORTUGUESE BOYCOTT.

Tariff wars are generally expensive; but
sometimes they are amusing as well. The
latest war of the kind is the one which the
little Kingdom of Portugal is waging
against England in retaliation for the oc-
cupation by the British of the Shire coun-
try in Africa which Portugal claims. The
Portuguese propose to get even with their
big enemy by cutting off his supplies of
port Wine
Everybody knows that the port wine of
to-day is a blended wine, which is doc
tered to suit the British taste in the great
warehouses ON the London Docks. Its
basis is the genuine wine grown on the
Upper Douro, some fifty miles from Oporto.
or this, England takes about 100000
gallons year, worth at the point of ship
ment something over 81 gallon. On ar
rival in London this wine is blended with
other wines, strengthened with brandy,
favored with burnt sugar, and then left to
age in pipes. We are to assume now that
this supply is cut off. No immediate in
convenience would follow, as the London
Docks contain supply that would last for
many years. Long before its exhaustion
new source of supply would be discovered.
There are lots of countries in the world
which can grow the grape which tiourishes
on the Upper Douro. 1t can be cultivated
to advantage in Los Angeles, Orange,
Fresno, San BernardiG0 and Butte coun-
ties, besides other in this State We have
not thus FAR succeeded in making such port
wine in California as England admires, but
this has been due to the fact that that kind
Of wine is going out of fashion all over the
world, and that it pays our wine men better
TO make elaret. If we had market for
100000 gallons a year of port wine, we
would soon produce as good an article as
the Portuguese have been doing, and the
voyage round the Cape would improve it.
Thus the English would not be put to intol-
cradle hardship by the proposed Portu-
guese boycott.
But, say the Portuguese, we are going to
shut out English cotton goods. and here is
where we shall get even with the enemy.
As to this, it may be observed that if the
Portuguese voluntarily shut themselves out
of the only market they have for the goods
they produce they VIII not have any money
TO buy cotton goods or any other kind of
goods. Excluding the trade of Portugal
with Spain, which consists of an inter-
change of farm products, the leading article
of export is port wine; il produces more
money and feeds more Portuguese months
fish aud fruits. II the Portuguese are re-
duced to drink their own wine they will
lack bread to eat with it. A result of this
kind would hardly indicate the wisdom of the
policy Of the boycott.
1t looks as though the Portuguese had
been studying the early history of this
country, and taking leaf out of our book.
But their situation is very different from
that which the United States occupied
when the embargoes were laid. In the be-
ginning of this century a stoppage of foreign
trade Inconvenience merchants of the sea-
board, but had no perceptible effect on the
great bulk of the American people. The
country was not dependent on foreign trade.
Its cessation caused a scarcity of a few
articles which were not produced at home.
but it did not diminish our supply of food,
clothing, the ordinary necessaries of life, or
even money. No distress was caused even
by the great embargo of 1907. The situa-
ton of Portugal is different. 1t can neither
feed nor clothe its people. For both of these
Indispensable articles of consumption it is
dependent on foreign countries, and to get
them it must have money or goods inter
ehangeable for money.