A.D. 1689 
—1776, 
by admit- 
tang Portu- 
quese wines 
om special 
terms. 
160 PARLIAMENTARY COLBERTISM 
the Queen of England “if the woollen cloths, and the rest of 
the woollen manufactures of Britain, might be admitted into 
Portugal, the prohibition of them being taken off’.” He was 
able to carry this point: on the other hand, he conceded to 
the Portuguese that their wines should always be admitted 
into England at two-thirds of the duty paid on French wines. 
This treaty had some curious minor results; through its 
operation the culture of the vine was somewhat extended 
in Portugal?; and the wines thus introduced into England 
supplanted Burgundy? on the tables of those who adapted 
their consumption to the supposed advantage of the realm. 
The man who drank his bottle of port could feel that he was 
Jealing with people who were large customers for English 
sloth, and indirectly facilitating the employment of the poor 
at home. The extent to which Portugal took off our manu- 
factures, and thus encouraged industry in this country, 
appeared to be measured by the vast amount of Brazilian 
} Chalmers, Collection of Treaties, 11. 304 (27 Dec. 1703). In his adverse 
criticism of this treaty Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations, 1v. ¢. 6, p. 224) does not 
ake sufficient account of the circumstances under which the agreement was made. 
Englishmen, who were bargaining for liberty to trade at all, could hardly hope to 
obtain exclusive or preferential privileges at a single stroke. According to the 
statement in the British Merchant (111. 89) the cloth manufacture in Portugal was 
sntirely ruined when the market was opened to British goods. The subsequent 
revival of the manufacture by the Marquis of Pombal rendered the arrangement 
wugatory, so far as English manufacturing interests were concerned. Leone Levi. 
History of British Commerce, 29. 
2 The Portuguese appear to have been very anxious to maintain their special 
advantage over France in the English market. Parl. Hist. v1. 792. 
8 Stanhope, History of England, comprising the Reign of Queen Anne, 112. 
The taste of wine drinkers in America was affected by similar considerations. 
Madeira wine, not being an European commodity, could be imported directly into 
America and the West Indies; these countries enjoyed a free trade to the island 
»f Madeira, in all the non-enumerated commodities. ‘These circumstances had 
probably introduced that general taste for Madeira wine which our officers found 
astablished in all our colonies at the commencement of the war which began in 
1755, and which they brought back with them to their mother country, where that 
wine had not been much in fashion before. Upon the conclusion of that war, in 
1763 (by the 4th Geo. IIL. c. 15, § 12), all the duties, except £3. 10s., were allowed 
;0 be drawn back upon the exportation to the colonies of all wines except French 
wines, to the commerce and consumption of which national prejudice would allow 
a0 sort of encouragement’ (Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book 1v. c. 4, 
p. 204). The long-established taste for French wines which had been developed 
ander the natural trading connections of these countries for centuries was not 
aasily suppressed, and there seems to have been a great deal of illicit trade in 
‘hia article.