The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-09
CHEAP WINE IN FRANCE.
Twenty Two Gallons Sold as Low as
 Thirty Cents-Overproduc

l Inlrty CentS-OVerproductiO
 The extraordinary yield of the French
 vineyards during the last two years has
 had some curious results. In the first
 place, it has put an end to the fabrica-
 ton of wines, the ingredients needed
 for the purpose costing more than the | natural product. In the second place,
 1t is tending to make Frenchmen once | more nation of wine drinkers, be- I cause wine costs less than beer or milk,
 or any kind of mineral water that is | bottled. Some of the facts relating to | this subject are well worth noting.
 The output of the French vineyards
 in 1890 was 1,6O1, 512O 900 gallons of wine. This year it is only few thousand gal
 Ions less. Why, it may be asked, do
 not the wine producers, like the wheat
 growers, store their product? The an-
 swer is that in France the cellars are 1 not large enough, and storage is so costly that most of the ordinary wine
 must be disposed of annually to make
 way for the new crop. For this reason,
 and because the wine of this year and
 Of last year is of q relatively poor quail | ity, the prices of win ordinaire have
 sunk far below the cost of production.
 At recent sales of large quantities cer-
 tain ordinary wine, which formerly
 brought four dollars, was purchased | for from thirty to forty-one cents the | tWenty-tW gallons Better qualities | ot wine of the same class were bought
 for $1.25 to $1.75 the twenty-two gal | Ions. As the production of such wine
 only costs from $1.75 to S2 the twenty | two gallons, the loss was less disastrous | to the wine grower than that suffered | in the case of the wine sold at thirty | to forty-one cents, which cost almost
 as much to produce as did the superior | quality. The aggregate losses of the current business year to French wine growers have been put as high as two hundred and sixty million dollars, but
 this estimate greatly exaggerates the quantity of wine sold at the lowest price.
 There is no doubt, however, that
 French wine of an ordinary type is
 now phenomenally cheap, and that for the present 1t has ceased to be luxu-
 ry in France. At any of the large gro- cery stores in Paris a fair and abso- lutely pure wine can now be bought at five cents the quart bottle. As the bot tie itself costs four cents, the wine is really purchased for a cent quart.
 For eight to twelve cents truly excel
 lent quality of both red and white wine can be procured. Although, of course, the frequenters of cafes and wine shops
 profit much less by the fall in whole sale prices than does the retail vendor, French workman may now buy any where a glass of wine for two cents. On the other hand, glass of beer or a glass of milk would cost him six cents, and cup of tea or coffee can seldom be obtained so cheaply.
 The cheapness of wine4n Paris is not due solely to the exceptionally large yield of French vineyards. contrib utory cause is the fact that everywhere in France the railways transport wine at minimum rate. Then, again, French wine growers are no longer obliged to send to Spain for heavier wine to combine with their own pro- duct. The output of the Algerian and Tunisian vineyards has been so much improved that it is now used almost exclusively to give body to the home article. The suppression of the octrol 
 Paris has also made great difference to the inhabitants of that city. The tax used to be based on the quantity, not the quality, of the wine introduced, so that barrel of the latter worth a few dollars would pay the same tax as one worth hundreds.
 If French wine growers have thus far failed to relieve themselves of their surplus by flooding foreign markets with their products, it Is because wine is regarded as an article of luxury in 1 countries that do not produce 1t, and duties are levied on that assumption. Thus in England the ordinary wine, which used to be worth four dollars the twenty-two gallons but which can now be purchased for thirty to forty one cents, has to pay duty of about $5.4O. In Russia the same grade of wine has to pay about $14.30 the twenty-two gal Ions. No wonder a deputation repre- senting ninety-two hundred wine grow CTS and merchants lately urged M. Del casse. the minister for foreign affairs, to turn the Czar's visit to account by persuading that sovereign to place a lower duty on French wines.
 It is in the south of France that the wine crisis is most acute. There some of the wine growers refuse to pay the internal revenue tax on their products, and others, belonging to the reserve, decline to perform, the customary mill itary service on the ground that they have no time to spare. The glut how ever, from which the, wine business of France is now suffering is likely to be only temporary for the acreage of the vineyards will no doubt be reduced,