Why do the British drink beer and not wine?
Now I am reading the book “War, Wine and Taxes” by John Nye. In this book, the author describes how the increase in duties on French wine affected the alcoholic preferences of the British and the economy in general.
For a very long time, France was the main supplier of wine to the UK. At the same time, wine for the French was the largest export item, and the British were the largest buyers.
At the same time, the French bought very few British products. And it created a trade deficit for the UK, which they really disliked.
Apart from this, France was also the main geopolitical adversary of Great Britain. And between them periodically there were military conflicts.
This led to the British deciding to impose protective duties on French imports so as not to strengthen the enemy. Yes, it must be said that the fall in French imports led to an increase in imports of Portuguese wines. The British were fine with this, since the Portuguese bought more British products than the French and they had a trade surplus.
However, the Portuguese were still unable to replace the French. And even more duties, which effectively closed the British market for French wine, influenced the development of the brewing industry in the UK. Instead of protecting the market from foreign competition, the government decided to increase the excise taxes on beer and raw materials for it!
So that you understand the effect on the economy, at the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, excise taxes on beer and related raw materials became the largest source of income in the British budget and accounted for almost 24% of revenues. If we take duties on alcohol, then budget revenues rise to 35%! By comparison, taxes on land and windows accounted for only 21% of British budget revenues.
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