Burgundy to Champagne: The Wine Trade in Early Modern France

Abstract

Perhaps more than any other members of rural society, the wine growers of early modern France depended on markets. Those who controlled these markets, whether through enterprise, wealth, influence, or simple ruthlessness, could gain enormous power. This is the story of the provincial brokers who gained such power, rising in the late 17th and early 18th century from positions as minor as functionaries to world famous negotiants who exercised unprecedented control over the wine trade and wine growers. After an initial examination of France's viticultural society and the process of creating wine, Brennan turns his attention to the wine trade, and the process of finding the buyers who would make the vines bear economic fruit. Drawing on revealing statistics from Champagne, Brennan clearly establishes the crucial role played by brokers in this trade. He also examines the role of the brokers in the early 18th century, both nationally and in the provinces of Champagne and Burgundy. He analyzes the wine growers' response to the brokers' innovations and growing power, interpreting the language of judicial, political, and silent protests to illuminate the emerging views of the market's role in society.