The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-18
PORT IN FAVOR AGAIN,
How the Portuguese Wine First got it's
Firm Hold in England.

| Port they say, is coming in again
and champaign going out. But how die
port ever come in, and what were the
| reasons for its popularity? The tradi-
| tional three bottles We're of the
end of the last century and the begin
| ming of this, so that the story must be
| somewhat ancient by this time, but ii
| isSnone the less interesting and curious.
| One of the results Of Charles lis marri-
| age with Catherine of Braganza was
the resumption of more intimate rela-
tons with Portugal, which led to Eng
fish aid being given for the freedom of
Portugal from Spain in 1868. But poll
tical alliance did not involve commerce
ial freedom in those days, and the
English staple, wool, continued to be
kept out of Portugal by high duties,
which We're answered by the British
customs in equally severe duties upon
Portuguese wines. When the great
struggle for the Spanish succession
broke out at the beginning of the eight
zenith century, Pedro I of Portugal at
first declared on the side of the Bour
bons, but three years later came over to
the Allies. At this moment John Me-
thuen was English Envoy at the Court
of Lisbon. He seized the opportunity
of the political alliance to arrange for
easier terms for the introduction of
English wool into Portugal. The Portu
guese, on their side, demanded equiva-
lent advantages, and by the Methuen
Treaty of December 27, 1903, it was
on 40 Al 1pi al,
be admitted into England on payment
Of duty onethird less than that i'm
posed upon French Winese.
The result was that for the next seven
ty years vine culture was much encour-
aged in Portugal, and port became prac-
tically the only wine drunk in England
One Of the advantages which came from
the Methuen Treaty was that, as very
much more wool was sold to Portugal
than wine to England, the balance of
trade was distinctly in England's ia
yor, and large masses of Brazilian gold
amounting in the average to 100000
a year--were sent over to England to
redress the balance In the mercan-
tilist theories then prevalent this was
regarded as a special advantage Of the
Portuguese trade Adam Smith, who
was an opponent of the mercantilist
system, made the Methuen Treaty the
special object Of his attack, and it was
doubtless owing to his influence that
Pitt, in 1856, practically cancelled the
treaty and concluded one with France,
allowing French wines to enter on pey-
ment of equal duties with Portuguese.
The previous inequality had created
much friction with France, and compe-
tent observers declared that the drink
ing of port was not without its effect
upon the mutual hostile attitude of
England and France
Pitts well meant attempt to injure
port ut was very self-denying on his
parD was frustrated by the long con-
tinued war With France, which broke
out seven years afterward. During
this port paid o. a gallon, against 13s.
Sd. duty on French wines This lasted
on till the Reform bill. when the wine
duty was made equal in the matter of
provenance, and from that date port
lost its supremacy on British tables.
Its chief rival however, was for a long
time Spanish sherry, and it was only |
with the commercial treaty Of 1860 that |
French winese again assumed the popu-
arity which they had possessed through !
out the Middle Ages in England. Even |
now that port is getting more popular, |
1t can never regain the predominance |
1t held when it cost them two-thirds of |
the price of Burgundy or claret.
Yet does port get back more Of it's
own than you might think, for the
oaser sort of 1t goes to Bordeaux to be
mode into cheap claret. That Is the
stuff which sours our tempers in Soho.
Anyhow, the port we drink is not the
port of our fathers, by any manner OF
means. Forty years back the cursed
ohylloxera was already blackening the
ARREST Vineyards Many acres are only
IAN growers get much help from the
American plant, as they have along the
Loire. NM
That the reviving regard for port is
10 myth is plain enough fromNthe re-
lords of the auction sales. The same
ruth may be read in the downfall of
America will, though she buys her port
It thechemist's. Twenty-Five years ago
bort vas very low indeed. was clog
o the wine merchants cellar--no more
han that-and to get his money back
lie threw good wine away. But the man
Who could look ahead laid down port
md the foundation of a fortune at the
anne time; now he wishes that he had
aid as much again. and more.
AS for the coming crop, this Is just
he critical stage; as yet none can fore
ell either success or failure. The
Hague will hamper the industry, not
" injecting the vine or the wine (for
s the plague comes from dirt, so it
will stick to dirt) but by restricting the
movements of the trader. Just what
he hindrance will amount to cannot
ct be known.--Pall Mall Gazette.