The Brandy Trade under the Ancien Régime
Regional Specialisation in the Charente

A 1998 study of the brandy trade, its merchants, and its impact on the French economy under the ancien régime.

L. M. Cullen (Author)

9780521890984, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 20 June 2002

304 pages, 3 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.45 kg

"...fascinating study of the brandy trade....The material is enormously rich....this is a thoughtful book about an important topic. This book makes a real contribution to the subject." Thomas Brennan, Journal of Modern History

In this 1998 study of the brandy trade and its merchants, Professor Cullen explores the development of cognac, the world's most famous spirit product, which emerged as a consequence of a chronic wine surplus. While Professor Cullen focuses on the brandy trade, his findings contradict the view of a 'static' French economy in the eighteenth century. Professor Cullen shows that the brandy trade was based on a sophisticated regional economy, which, by 1720, had become a key component of French involvement in the modern international trading system. Notwithstanding the competition supplied by the emergence of surplus in other cereals and by foreign markets, regional specialisation in the Charente was an indispensable element in ensuring the quality of stable output, and was recognised in the region's success in attracting foreign négociants, such as the household names of Martell and Hennessy.

Preface
Abbreviations
Glossary
1. The emergence of brandy spirits
2. Brandy and the French economy
3. Brandy: the distilling process, the product and the industry
4. Brandy production and internal trade in France
5. Competing markets: Parisian and foreign demand
6. The merchants of the brandy regions
7. The Cognac brandy trade: 1720s–60s
8. External challenge in the 1760s: vicissitudes of old and new houses 1762–78
9. Brandy business in Bordeaux and Cognac in the 1780s
Sources
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ]