The economic doctrines in the wine trade and wine production sectors: the case of Bastiat and the Port wine sector: 1850-1908

French economic journalists of the liberal school, is considered here as a mean to understand
the international diffusion of economic ideas and their embodiment in national and sectoral
debase like the discussion of the port-wine system in newspapers and the Parliament. There is
a clear sues of the liberal doctrines and economic ideas by members representing the interests
of the Porto merchants as it is the case with Joaquim A. Kopke, the Barao de Massarelos.

Both Joaquim Kopke and Frédéric Bastiat held a similar view on the Harmony of
classes. Bastiat considered the winegrowers and the consumers while Kopke the Porto wine
merchants and the Douro wine growers. Probably both groups were interdependent, but the
history of the port-wine illustrate a different story based also on conflicts and efforts to
persuasion.

If I were to respond to question of the contribution of such economic journalists for
the advancement of economic science, I would probably say that their impact was positive,
but it could only be marginal.

On the other hand, they present a real value for understanding the economic discourse
and its diffusion internationally and in the press. This study is worthwhile. Moreover, the
understanding of economic issues such as the Douro wine problem, the economic discourse as
an element that can shed some light on the question of the issues for different interest groups,
trying to legitimize their position and justify their action.

If the theoretical contribution of Bastiat and Kopke is weak, the way they argue and
the manner they write and convince their readers are worth as much as the writings of
Bentham on logic and rhetoric fallacies are.

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