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INJURY TO WINES IN BOND.

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Victoria Dock Companies, which, when joined, will have the power of charging as a maximum :

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It is, however, to be hoped that the habit of keeping wines in bond will not be continued, for it is ruinous to every cask of natural wine from any and every country. Such kinds as Port, Sherry, Marsala, &c., with 35 to 45 per cent. of proof spirit, will stand any amount of maltreatment and knocking about; and, generally, the longer they have been in bond the better they are; but it is very different with those that have not been dosed with spirit, and which, therefore, require constant care and attention.

In the docks this is quite impracticable; and when it is stated that, wherever little or no spirit is added, every cask is racked from the lees two or three times during the first two years, and is filled to the bung every week, it is evident that it must be destructive

to them to remain where the sole care from year's end to year's end is that the dock company shall lose none of the liquid. In many cellars in France there are 6,000, 8,000, and 10,000 hogsheads requiring daily supervision; but, even in the bonded cellars at Bercy, near Paris, every merchant has entire control of his stock, and employs his own men, in the management of his stock. This is also the case in Holland and Belgium; and it must become the case here, if we are to have a larger consumption of unbrandied wines.

The following remarks, which I extract from a weekly French paper devoted to wine affairs, show what is thought in France on this point:

There are in London vast docks, in which are deposited wines on which the duty is not paid when they are landed. The company to whom the docks belong employ only their own servants. When a cask is placed in their cellars, it must remain till the duty is paid or it is exported, without being either filled up or racked from its lees; and in this state it is delivered. The buyer has tasted bright wine, but when he receives his cask it seems a mass of lees; and it is little wonder that the exclamation is often made, What stuff this French wine is!'

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There is another evil. Merchants and retailers are equally ignorant of the treatment of all wines not loaded with brandy. This is not surprising, as they are not permitted to have any charge of their wines in the docks. We ought not, therefore, to send any wine to the docks in London, till there shall be arrangements, as in Paris, by which every merchant may be enabled to take charge of his own, and to employ his own men to do what is required. This is allowed in Holland and Belgium, and

REVIEW OF HALF A CENTURY.

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we advise all to avoid sending to the docks in England any wine that is not as strong as port and sherry, while such regulations exist.

I am not aware that they have yet foreign cellarmen at any of the large docks, but there are Frenchmen and Germans at several of the other bonded vaults.

It seems to be a general habit to speak of one's own trade as a bad one. This is, of course, not correct generally, but it is easy to prove, by facts and by reasoning, that it is quite true as regards the wine trade. No trade can be healthy, if, while others are increasing in a wonderful degree, it remains stationary.

The average annual consumption of wine during cach ten years from 1791 to 1860 was

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In February 1860 the

duty was reduced to a general rate of 3s. per gallon, but it was in 1861 that it was made 18., and higher for greater strengths. Since then the consumption (duty paid) has been

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in wine, but let anyone examine the Report for 1863, just issued by H.M. Commissioners of Customs, and he will find:-We were hardly prepared, however, for so very remarkable an increase as this in 1863, which exceeds by 11 millions of gallons even the exceptional import of 1860, as is seen by the following table—

Isports of Wine,

1858

1839

1860

1861

1862

5,791,636 gallons.

8,195,513

12.475,001

11,052,436

11,960,676

And, to prove the remarkable increase' they show, in type large enough to be read half-a-mile off, 14,186,189 gallons.

1863

Underneath this large type, they ought to have placed, in quite as large, that although the importation and consignments were 14,186,189 the duty paid was only 10,478,401 gallons.

The same has been going on for some years, the consequence of which is, that speculative shipments have greatly exceeded the actual demand, and that the docks and other bonded vaults are crammed full of stock, most of it bad.

The exportation from this country was 2,299,773 gallons, but everyone practically acquainted with the wine business, knows that at least the half of this may usually be considered consignments for sale, on speculation, to Australia, India, &c., and that when

WINE TRADE UNSATISFACTORY.

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large, it is often rather a proof of difficulty of sales at home, than of true business.

During the period to which I have referred, the population has more than doubled, the wealth of the country is at least tenfold, and the value of the exportation of British manufactures has risen from about 25 to about 150 millions.

Surely this is sufficient proof that the wine has been, and is, a wretched languid trade; and it is melancholy to hear old wine merchants talking over their recollections of numerous firms, once of excellent standing, now broken down and vanished. A few have been successful, by economy and industry; but even these qualities could seldom have enabled them to make money had they not also possessed considerable capital, or the power of borrowing it when wanted. Without such advantages, it is generally a desperate affair to go into the wine trade; and I fear I am expressing nearly the truth, when declaring my belief that, if all who deal in wine were called upon to pay what they owe in business and otherwise, more than a half would be found insolvent.

This is a bold assertion; but it is not made without ́ having asked the opinion of men who well know the realities on which it is grounded. It would be entering too much into details to show how certainly anyone becoming a wine merchant in the private trade, with small capital, and whose business increases, and consequently absorbs more and more money, must place himself under obligations to one or more of the shipping, or bottling houses.

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