Chapter 707 - 328: Money Comes Like a Gust of Wind

Carlo, who hadn’t had much leisure time at the Royal Palace, quickly felt the sensation of money being swept in by the wind.

On January 5, 1886, Steward Loren excitedly found Carlo to report good news about the development of the Spanish Royal Family’s wine industry.

To be precise, it wasn’t just the Spanish Royal Family’s wine industry that was developing, but the entire Spanish wine industry.

What kind of good news was it?

Last year, in 1885, the total export volume of all Spanish wine brands exceeded one million tons.

What kind of extravagant concept is one million tons of wine? Currently, a standard bottle of wine in Europe is 750 milliliters, meaning a ton of wine can fill about 1333 bottles.

One million tons of wine is equivalent to 1.333 billion bottles. Based on Spain’s population of just over 23 million, these exported wines would allow each Spaniard to drink more than 57 bottles a year.

Of course, selling wine doesn’t actually make that much money.

Despite 13 billion bottles of Spanish wine being sold, most of these wines are mid-to-low-end products, especially low-end products.

Although wine is prevalent throughout Europe, it is the European commoners who consume the most wine. The commoners cannot afford expensive wine, which leads to an average low selling price per bottle, with a similarly not-too-high cost.

Currently, the Spanish Royal Family mainly operates two wine brands: the Royal Winery, which focuses on high-end wine and sells standard recent vintage bottles for hundreds of Pessetas.

For certain special editions, like the commemorative wine released during Carlo’s 10th coronation anniversary, each bottle’s price soars to several hundred Pessetas and often remains in high demand despite the price.

Clearly, such high-priced wine is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Apart from the Royal Winery, the Royal Family also has another brand focusing on mid-to-low end and cost-effective wines, known as Iberian Manor.

The wines produced by Iberian Manor are generally priced between 3-5 Pessetas per bottle, requiring the average person about a week’s salary to purchase a bottle.

What truly targets ordinary people are the low-end wines from other wineries. Some of these wines aren’t sold by the bottle, but by the barrel.

Such wines are priced very affordably, with the average price per 750 milliliters bottle being less than 1 Pesseta, a price that all Spaniards can afford.

Due to the low prices of low-end wines, the Royal Family hasn’t entered the ultra-low-end wine market. This has allowed the Spanish wine industry to develop without royal competition, enabling small-scale wine brands to sustain themselves fairly well.

Based on Spain’s export volume of 1.3 billion bottles, even if the majority are low-end wines, this export still generates hundreds of millions of Pessetas in revenue for the Spanish wine industry.

After all, export prices definitely differ from domestic prices. Once it comes to exports, transportation, loss, and tariffs all increase costs, causing even low-end wine prices to be significantly higher.

It is noteworthy that during the outbreak of the Spanish Revolution, in 1868, Spain’s grape export volume was actually less than 200,000 tons.

So the question arises: why has Spain’s wine export volume quintupled rapidly over more than ten years?

The main reason is the phylloxera pest outbreak across Europe, which reduced wine production in various countries, leading to a decrease in wine export scale.

The country most severely affected by the phylloxera pest, coincidentally, was the renowned wine producer, France.

Even more coincidentally, the hardest-hit area in France happened to be Bordeaux, the heart of its wine industry.

Indeed, starting from 1868, France, originally a major wine exporter, began importing wine from Spain continuously.

As a major exporter of wine, France was also a significant consumer of wine. Wine in Europe holds a place just like white spirit in Asia; not only do European men drink it, but even women enjoy wine.

The importation of Spanish wine by France not only spurred the growth of the Spanish wine industry but also brought many advanced winemaking techniques to Spain.

Initially, Spain’s winemaking technology was comparatively backward, and when held up against the famous wine region of Bordeaux, Spain’s techniques were merely adequate.

After acquiring winemaking techniques from France, the Spanish wine industry rapidly developed and began exporting to regions across Europe besides France.

During the period when the French wine industry had to reduce its scale due to pest infestations, the Spanish wine industry nearly took over the majority of the wine export market originally held by France.

Due to relationships with several royal families combined with media publicity, the Royal Winery brand from the Spanish Royal Family also became popular among European nobility, becoming a reputable high-end red wine second only to certain luxury brands.

The low-end wines achieved even greater penetration, entering countless French households.

According to reports from French newspapers, out of every three bottles of wine consumed in France, one originates from Spain.