268 On the Wines of Spain. 
foreign wine merchants in the Jéres district. For some 
time previous to the year 1863, the general wine market in 
Spain had been often inan excited state. The oidium, had 
reduced the vintage by one-half, and while the demand for 
good sherry steadily increased, the supply in England as 
steadily diminished, and so pricés went up continually. 
This state of things reached its climax in 1863-4. The 
importers in England, fearing further advances, were buying 
far beyond their immediate wants, and the district of Jéres 
was incapable by itself of producing half the quantity of 
wine called for. The genuine produce of Jéres was sold at 
fabulous prices, and the holders became every day more 
exacting in their terms. In order to execute the orders 
which poured in upon them, the shippers were compelled 
to seek for white wines in the Sevilla, Cordova, Montilla, 
and Mogner districts. Though far from rivalling in body 
and aroma the produce of the Jéres soils, these wines met 
with a market in England and elsewhere on account of 
their comparative cheapness. The growers of these (said) 
districts finding the demand for their wines largely increas- 
ing, soon began to imitate the exactions of the Jeres vine- 
yard proprietors, and prices went up with extraordinary 
rapidity. Certain speculators calculating upon the conti- 
nuance of the then state of the sherry market, entered into 
contracts for the purchase of the future produce of the 
vineyards in the Seville and other districts, and advanced 
money to the proprietors. New-cellars were built, and new 
vineyards were planted in all directions, and Jeres was 
threatened with an inundation of low white wines. 
The natural consequences of the high price of wines was 
an augmentation in the value of all kinds of property, and 
a great increase in the wages of the working classes. 
Instead of 3s. sterling a-day, cellarmen were now demand- 
ing and getting 4s. and 4s. 4d. The wages of the coopers 
and of the labourers of the vineyards were advanced in the 
same proportion. Jéres was to all appearances prosperous 
beyond all precedent, and became intoxicated with its 
prosperity—“ waxed fat, and kicked.” Few persons saved 
any money (especially among the labouring classes). The 
newly-acquired wealth was squandered in newly-acquired 
wants; and of the small number who did lay by, the 
majority invested their money in vineyards and other pro- 
perty whose value depended in a great measure upon the 
continuance of the then state of the wine market. 
That this state of things could not last was patent to all 
