The economic doctrines in the wine trade and wine production sectors: the case of Bastiat and the Port wine sector: 1850-1908

The history of economic ideas (or doctrines) has a long tradition of popularization activists, usually, but not exclusively, defending some ideological precepts over others. This tradition is particularly clear in the 19th century and early 20th century with economists, such as Frédéric Bastiat, reaching a wide readership and get involved in polemical economic issues and policies. This is the case of the wine production and wine trade. Bastiat is involved in the defense of free trade in the wine sector in France. His views are widely diffused in Europe. In the case of Portugal, the ideas of Bastiat are used by several authors (and, inter alia, Joaquim Kopke) to argue for free trade and the suppression of the restrictive system of the Port wine. This defense is also based on the converging interests of wine merchants and landowners (especially proprietors of large vineyards in the Upper Douro). After treating the diffusion of economic ideas and the doctrine of Frédéric Bastiat in the first and second sections, I will characterize in the third one, the setting of the wine sector. Finally, I study the case of port wine with documents from archives, newspapers and pamphlets from about 1850 to 1908.