GAMBLING IN GRAPES 91 



make vines with a higher percentage of alcohol, and 

 with these he can correct the lighter wines made during 

 the preceding weeks. Finally, the bodeguero does not 

 advance money to the vinatero, as the manufacturer 

 does to the canero in the sugar industry. 



The only safeguard of the vine-growers is the lack 

 of understanding between the bodegueros and the 

 competition between them. Although there are con- 

 ventions amongst the bodegueros which lay down offi- 

 cially, before the vintage, the basis of all transactions, 

 they are not respected except in so far as they serve 

 a man's interest. If it is expected that the wine will 

 easily be sold, and that grapes will be short, buyers 

 are abundant, and contracts are signed before the 

 fruit appears. It is a sort of gamble, as in the case of 

 wheat and cotton. Bulls and bears struggle for the 

 market. If the bulls win, the vinateros grow rich. 1 



When we compare the diagrams which show the 

 production of wine and sugar in Argentina during the 

 last thirty years, we see that they clearly illustrate 

 the condition of dependence of the vineyard industry 

 and the sugar industry as regrads the home market. 

 The prosperity of the region of the Pampas, especially 

 during the years before 1914, is reflected at Mendoza 

 and Tucuman. The expansive movement of the estates 

 is similarly bound up with the construction of railways 

 to connect them with the coast. Industry, on a large 

 scale, began at Tucuman in 1876: that is to say, at 

 the opening of the Central Cordoba line. The area 

 planted with cane rose from 2,200 hectares in 1876 to 

 14,800 in 1886. The production of sugar was trebled 



1 Besides the causes of a geographical nature which I have indi- 

 cated, the separation of cultivation from wine-making has other 

 economic grounds, but they do not fall within the range of this book. 

 The large bodega is better situated than the small cultivator for organ- 

 izing the sale of his wines on the distant market of Buenos Aires. 

 Also, the bodegueros alone are able to meet the competition of Buenos 

 Aires merchants who import European wines and make adulterated 

 wines. 



