Phylloxera, price volatility and institutional innovation in france's domestic wine markets, 1870-1911

Abstract

This paper looks at the response of growers and merchants, first to vine disease and high prices, and then to the problems of overproduction and product adulteration. France produced a large range of wines, but by the early twentieth century most commodity chains were failing to provide accurate information for consumers to discriminate between differences in quality. The paper argues that the different characteristics of individual wines, and the nature of their commodity chains, resulted in the demand for very different solutions to the low prices and profits of the 1900s