The Irish Brandy Houses of Eighteenth-Century France.(Review)

The Irish Brandy Houses of Eighteenth-Century France, by L. M. Cullen (Dublin: Lilliput P., 2000; pp. 244. (Irish) 29.95 [pounds sterling])

One of the more minor changes effected by the French revolution was the transformation of the trade in French brandy from a pre-industrial -- what the French would call `artisanale' affair -- into a modern one, dominated, as it has been since 1800, by a handful of major firms. The revolution, which mainly affected Cognac, both the drink and the town, was triggered off by the hyper-inflation, the boom and bust economics of the years from 1792 to 1795 and the very varying ability of those involved to come to terms with the …