Pirates, plague and pillaging: Anglo-Bordeaux wine trade in the Middle Ages

by Rupert Millar

On the 29th of September 1918, the German submarine U-54 surfaced off the Cornish coast to torpedo a British merchant ship.

The vessel – and three of her crew – were U-54’s last victims of the war. The ship was the SS Libourne. She was steaming back to Liverpool after delivering coal to Bordeaux, where she had taken on a cargo of gherkins, a great deal of brandy, claret and Sauternes (10,000 bottles – all uninsured).

Libourne was possibly the last British merchantman making the ‘wine run’ from Bordeaux to an English port that fell prey to a commerce raider. That she was named after a town founded by the English and integral to Bordeaux’s wine trade is especially ironic.

It is a reminder that, despite its longevity and profitability, the trade link between England and Bordeaux has not always been smooth sailing.

This was never more true than during the years of the Anglo-Gascon wine trade in the Middle Ages. Although it lasted for the better part of England’s 300-year rule of the Duchy of Gascony and wine imports were one of the leading sources of revenue for the English crown, it nonetheless faced constant obstacles stemming from the various political, economic and social crises of the era.

Grounds for war
Encouraged by John I of England, who gave generous privileges and tax exemptions to Gascon merchants, the wine trade between England and Bordeaux began to flourish in the early 13th century.

By the early part of the 14th century, an average of 80,000 tuns of wine a year were exported from Bordeaux, about a quarter of it to England. In 1308-09 a record 102,724 tuns passed through the Gironde estuary.

But feudal quarrels over the duchy’s dominion cast a long shadow over what should have been a lucrative trade.

Even before the outbreak of the Hundred Years War, Gascony had been invaded by the French in 1294 and 1324. Then, from 1338 to 1453, the duchy would suffer repeated incursions and devastating raids known as ‘chevauchées’ – one in 1437-38 led by the Spanish mercenary Rodrigo de Villandrando got as far as the walls of Bordeaux itself.

The effect of this frequent warfare was suffocating for the wine trade.

Wines of the Haut Pays
The majority of wine exports came not from vineyards around Bordeaux but the Haut Pays, up the valleys of the Dordogne and Garonne and their tributaries; from as far away as Bergerac on the Dordogne, Cahors on the Lot, Gaillac on the Tarn, Agen on the Garonne and Condom on the Baïse.

These were the areas most affected by the war. As the frontlines shifted, their ability to ship wine and other goods to Bordeaux would wax and wane.

Many local lords changed sides, taxes rose, towns levied fresh tolls to pay for their defence, and the war and rampant banditry destroyed lives and livelihoods and led to the abandonment of rural areas.

From the surviving 14th-century records, we can see that, at the turn of the century, only 14% of wines exported from Bordeaux were produced by the burgesses, nobles and ecclesiastics of the city. By contrast, 53% to 63% were from the Haut Pays. After the war began, the number of tuns originating from these regions dwindled to near-parity with those produced in Bordeaux, and at times none was registered at all.

The impact on the volumes shipped was noticeable. In the year immediately before the war’s outbreak, 74,053 tuns were exported from Bordeaux. The following year just 16,577 were. For the rest of the 14th century, the largest export figure was 43,869 tuns – during a period of peace in the 1360s. From 1400 to 1453, exports only exceeded 20,000 tuns on one occasion – at the height of renewed English success in the 1420s.

Apart from access to wine, another problem was the availability of shipping. England possessed no navy in this period and ships that plied the trade routes one year might be requisitioned as part of an invasion fleet the next. During periods of high military activity, the number of ships available to form a wine fleet could be seriously diminished, with a resultant decline in exports.

Wine was the duchy’s most-important source of revenue, and falling exports affected its coffers. From 1401-13, the average annual receipt for wine customs was £1,050 3s and just £176 11s from other sources (salt, honey, woad, alum etc.). In the last year of English rule, the wine custom was just £410 2s – not enough when annual expenses were over £1,200 due to significant military expenditure. As war throttled trade, it became increasingly difficult to balance the books.

Pirates!
But getting to Bordeaux was only half the battle. The route between England and Bordeaux already posed numerous challenges to ships’ masters. Strong currents, dangerous coastlines, storms and sandbanks, claimed their steady toll on vessels.

Worse still, war opened the trade’s sea lanes to piracy. Preying on fat merchant ships, laded with expensive goods such as wine and salt, was an ideal means for the king of France to strike economically at England. Breton, Norman and later Castilian pirates were a constant menace from the Bay of Biscay to the North Sea.

Knowing that ships headed to Bordeaux for the new wines in October and November, and then February and March for the ‘reek’ (racked) wines, made the freebooters’ work even easier.

To combat this, English kings occasionally ordered the wine fleet to sail in convoy for greater safety and with armed escorts – at the cost of an additional tax on each tun returned to England.

Ships’ masters and merchants would also organise and arm themselves if official help was lacking. But it was not just English merchants that suffered these depredations, nor were the pirates always Castilian or French.

By the 15th century, more complex networks of freighting led to numerous mix-ups and confusion. In 1441 for example, the Christoper of St Servan out of La Rochelle was waylaid by Cornish pirates near the Isle of Wight. The Cornishmen claimed the ship was French and its cargo belonged to Hollanders and Zeelanders making it lawful prey. But two Breton merchants – who were technically protected from the attentions of English raiders – claimed the wine on board was theirs.

Likewise, in 1460, the Marie of Dordrecht/Danzig was taken by Sir Hugh Courtenay off the Scilly Isles with a cargo worth close to £3,000. Though the ship may have been Netherlandish or German in origin, the cargo was the property of a Bristol merchant.

Merchants did have ways to seek redress and compensation in such cases – as surviving law records show. But stolen cargoes were usually swiftly sold off by their captors and disappeared into the cellars of local taverns, manors and abbeys.

Plague and blight
Life was precarious in 14th century Europe and hardship common. Modern vignerons are no more familiar with adversity than their medieval counterparts. Yields fluctuated each year and hail, frost, flood, drought, rot and pests were as common then as they are now – with additional dangers. For example, a severe frost in 1406 was compounded by a French invasion that struck at Bourg and Blaye. Wine imports to England that year were predictably low.

The arrival of the Black Death in 1348 was even more catastrophic – it is notable, however, that even a grievous pandemic did not completely halt the wine trade. Records from the period do survive and show its effect. In the first year of the pestilence, 1348-49, the wine fleet – often several hundred ships strong – numbered just 74. Meanwhile, wine exports for 1348-49 dropped to just 5,923 tuns, the lowest tally we know of for the 14th century.

The fall of Bordeaux

And if piracy, plague, pillaging and population decline were not enough, there was also bureaucracy, bad governance and mercantile bigotry to contend with. Over several centuries English parliaments passed many acts which hampered the trade more than helped it.

And for all the mutual accord and cooperation between Gascon and English merchants, many had protectionist and monopolistic mindsets that put them at odds with one another. Xenophobic English merchants sought to freeze the Gascons out of business in England, while Gascons spoiled their copybook by wilfully selling poor quality goods or under-filling barrels.

You might have expected the greatest challenge to the Anglo-Gascon trade was the final invasion and assimilation of Gascony and Bordeaux by the French in 1453, but in fact the link between England and Bordeaux was not severed entirely.

English merchants were stripped of all their former trade privileges. They were required to stop at Soulac to acquire an expensive safe conduct pass – which was not always immediately forthcoming – and then at Blaye to surrender any weapons carried on board.

Their time in Bordeaux was restricted to just one month (and only after paying for a further licence). They were required to stay in specific lodgings, observe a curfew and wear a red cross on their garments when out in public. Any journey beyond the city walls required another safe conduct pass and the presence of a soldier.

However, although much restricted and more costly, trade did not implode, even if it didn’t return to the boom years of the early 14th century. English merchants either accepted the new conditions or found Gascon, Flemish or Breton partners to act as factors and carry goods for them.

Entente cordiale
War and natural disasters were never far away, but trade was never so impracticable or unprofitable as to be unsustainable.

In our own time, we have seen the far-reaching disruption to shipping and economic uncertainty caused by a pandemic and war. And yet, wine merchants and their suppliers continue to do business. Medieval vintners were little different, taking on risk and adapting to circumstances in the knowledge there was a market to supply.

The Anglo-Gascon wine trade survived grievous ruptures and challenges. Buckling, yes, but never breaking.

As one historian of the period said: ‘The economic link between England and Gascony, well and truly forged during three centuries of political union, was now too strong to be lightly broken.’

Arguably, it never has been.