38 Port anD the Douro
The First World War provided the British community with an unwelcome diversion
from their problems in Portugal. The able-bodied men in the Port trade left to fight in
the trenches while the women, remaining behind in Oporto, spent their time knitting
socks and scarves for the troops. But November 1914 was chiefly remembered by the Port
shippers for the Anglo-Portuguese Commercial Treaty Act which established the first legal
definition for Port wine. Quotas were introduced in the following year, forcing an increase
in the price of Port. The First World War also brought an end to a fifty-year-old practice
of sending Portuguese eggs to Britain along with Port. According to Ernest Cockburn,
whose book is full of anecdotes from the time, they were usually sent over in baskets
containing about a hundred eggs and, despite having no more than a piece of canvas tied
over the top, breakages were apparently rare. The eggs were kept fresh by sealing them
with insinglass or milk (both fining agents) before shipment and were much appreciated
in the United Kingdom. Cockburn adds that ‘it was usually found for culinary purposes
that two such Portuguese eggs would do the work of three English eggs’. Much the same
could be said of Portuguese eggs until large battery farms were set up in the 1980s.
Fearing that the African colonies would become bargaining pawns among the combatants,
Portugal entered the First World War on the side of the Allies in 1916. In August of the
same year the second of the commercial treaties was signed between Portugal and the United
Kingdom, prohibiting the importation of Port unless it was accompanied by a Certificate
of Origin from the Portuguese authorities. This effectively closed the lucrative UK market
to the multitude of ‘lookalike’ wines from other destinations. Although shipping became
increasingly hazardous and insurance costs rose dramatically owing to the activities of enemy
submarines, Port grew steadily in popularity. The tax on spirits was raised in Britain to the
extent that many people gave up whisky or gin for a glass of Port. Port and lemon (a shot of
inexpensive ruby Port let out into a long drink by the addition of fizzy lemonade) became
an everyday drink at thousands of pubs throughout the land. This new-found commerce
helped to revive business for both growers and shippers in the years immediately following
the war. Despite the loss of the remaining Russian market in 1917, Port began to enjoy a
minor boom. Shipments to the UK alone reached 70,000 pipes in 1918, and some growers
near Mesão Frio were expressly permitted to bring in grapes from outside the demarcation
in order to satisfy demand. So great was the demand for Port that wines were offered to the
British trade on the basis of ‘PRWS’ – Price Ruling When Shipped.
The political instability that had dogged Portugal since the beginning of the century
continued well into the 1920s. Inflation was rampant and the lodgemen and coopers
frequently came out on strike for higher wages. A minor civil war was taking place around
Vila Real and a monarchy was briefly proclaimed in Oporto, but came swiftly to an end
after Republican troops filled the centre of the city. The state of Portugal’s economy,
deeply damaged by the war, went from bad to worse. Senior officers in the Portuguese
army became increasingly restless when the junior officers and sergeants received pay
increases of up to 1,200 per cent compared to their own meagre rises of 144 to 306 per
cent. On 26 May 1926 they rose in rebellion and the liberal First Republic collapsed. For
a time, the economic and political instability continued. In February 1927 a revolt broke