Copy 1

A history and description of modern wines / By Cyrus Redding.

  • Cyrus Redding
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history and description of modern wines / By Cyrus Redding. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    467/496 page 399
    Three quarts of Sherry were sold for two shillings. Three quarts of white wine three shillings, being the vintner’s prices. Parliamentary papers of some standing show that down to the time of the revolution in 1688, or even a year or two subse- quently, great quantities of French wine were imported, to the extent in some years of 20,000 tuns. The jealousy towards every thing French after that time, induced the laying on of enormous duties by legislators, who were not wise enough to reflect that those wines must have been exchanged for British commodities of one class or another. In 1693 the duties on French wines were increased 8/. per tun. In 1697, this duty was made 25/. more than on Portugal wines. Instead of two- fifths of all wine imported being French, as in 1669, the high duty had so driven it out of the market, that in 1784 only a thirty-fifth part was French. In 1697, the duty was 4s. Odd. on French, and 1s. 8d. on Portuguese wine. In 1778 to 1806, French wine was raised from 6s. 33d. the gallon to lls. 54d. duty, and Portuguese from 2s. 11$d. to 7s. 7d. From 1770 to 1782 from sixty to ninety-six pounds were levied, while other wines only paid from thirty to fifty pounds. Those duties were reduced in 1786, but during the late war they were raised to 144/. 7s. 6d. on French, and 95/. 10s. on Portuguese, while German and Hungarian wines paid 118/. 13s. in British bottoms. In 1825 these absurd duties, which had acted most prejudicially to the revenue, and were unjust to the consumer as well as to trade, were reduced, and in 1831 finally settled at a duty of five shillings and sixpence a gallon upon all wines except Cape. The variation in these heavy duties was a proof how little reason and sound sense had to do with the enactment of them, seeing that whether French, Spanish, Por- tuguese, or any other wines were imported, they must be paid for in British manufactures, and what claim had the manufacturer of woollen over the maker of cotton goods, bar iron, silk, or steel ware ? The duty of 1713 was levied from 1726 to 1736, an average of ten years, on 23,109 tuns per annum, French, Spanish, Ger- man, and Portuguese wines alone, the population being about five millions; including other wines imported, 24,000 tuns may be reckoned as the importation, which would give a revenue of 13
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