CONSUMPTION OF WINE IN ENGLAND In Roman and Saxon Days.—The Romans, during their oc cupation of Britain were probably the first to import wine into England from the Continent, but no documentary evidence of the existence of the English wine trade has as yet come to light earlier than the 5th century. Moreover, it was not before the 9th cen tury that one finds regular shipments of wine from Rouen to both England and Ireland, though, during the loth century, this branch of commerce had acquired sufficient importance to become a source of revenue for the Royal Exchequer, six shillings per ship of wine having to be paid at Billingsgate by merchants arriving from Rouen.
Saxon records make manifest that before the Norman Conquest, wines were already in general use, in Britain, for a variety of pur poses, wines which are described as being either "clear, strong, austere, soft, sweet, etc." During the iith century, the wholesale and retail branches of the wine trade were distinct and both were flourishing.
By the marriage, in 1152, of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henri Plantagenet, Duke of Anjou and Normandy, who became King Henry II the following year, Bordeaux and some of the fairest vineyards of France passed under the rule of England and re mained under it during three consecutive centuries.
In 1335, Edward III having prohibited all export of coin, Bordeaux merchants were made to purchase in exchange of their wines goods which they did not want or did not understand sufficiently to buy well; in consequence, they preferred to go to Flemish, Dutch and Hanseatic ports and they ceased almost entirely to go to Great Britain. Hence, the King, the more wealthy lords, both spiritual and temporal, as well as English vintners, were obliged to send to Bordeaux their men, they ships and their money to buy the supplies of wine of which they stood in need.
This change was mainly responsible for the very rapid increase of the naval strength and maritime preponderance of England. Until then, Gascons, Flemings, Genoese and Germans shared among themselves practically the whole of the carrying trade, and the necessity which forced English merchants to go overseas and fetch wines which foreign traders refused to bring over any longer was of the utmost benefit to the country. The supremacy of the
English mercantile marine dates from then.
It was also during the reign of Edward III that the practice originated of a number of ships sailing from some appointed English port and on some officially appointed day and proceeding to Bordeaux in fleet formation, in order to be better able to de fend themselves from attack. Such fleets sailed usually in the late autumn and returned home before Christmas with the "new" wines ; they sailed again in the following spring, usually soon after Easter, and returned with the "rack" wines.
Only then could the wine be landed and stored in vaults on or near the quay-side. This landing could only be effected by officially recognized "wine-drawers," skilled in this work, of which they enjoyed the absolute monopoly.
Once landed, the wine had to be passed by the "Gauger," the buyer and seller each paying this official one halfpenny per tun of wine gauged, and it could then be sold, but, again, the services of an official "broker" were required to make the sale binding. This broker had to see that the price demanded by the seller was not beyond the maximum price fixed by authority from time to time for different sorts of wine ; he also had to see that the importer of wine sold his wine wholesale, and only to those who were free to buy wholesale, viz., peers, vintners and taverners.