The wine brokers of Bordeaux, intermediaries in the wine market in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
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The French system of wines brokerage in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was regulated by royal edicts but also by regional characteristics, linked to their old urban origins. While official brokerage disappeared in Champagne and in Burgundy in the second half of the eighteenth century, to the benefit of commission agents, the case was not the same in Bordeaux. Moreover, the brokers occupied a major role in the definition of the hierarchies and the qualities of wines, thanks to a complex reorganization of the brokers’ corporation. This corporation was divided between royal brokers and patented brokers, but it remained important, despite the activity of unofficial agents, called flying brokers. It is necessary to consider several explanations that are linked to the professionalization of the wine brokers’ corporation of Bordeaux, but also with the quantitative and qualitative transformation of the wine market. Indeed, brokers had an excellent knowledge of the vineyard and wines. Furthermore, their role of defending the producers and the quality of the wine-producing hinterland was an essential determiner in preserving brokerage in Bordeaux, beyond the questionings of the second half of the eighteenth century.
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