We are in Porto for a few nights and its history is interesting. The north of Portugal has always been more liberal than the south, partly because of its proximity to France, partly because of ties with England going back to the 1700s. England had manufactured goods that Portugal wanted, Portugal had little to offer in return. The wine they produced in the north was a sweeter, quite average red. British merchants started mixing it with cheap, very average brandies from the south of France- port was born and a whole industry took off.

British wine companies found a ready market for their Porto Wine in the clubs of London. They took over all of the natural caves found along the south bank of the Porto’s river and used them as giant natural cellars. Wine was carted down-stream from hinterland producers in shallow bottomed boats and sold to fat bottomed Poms – England had found another product that they could export around the world whilst the Portuguese remained poor.

It was the same story with the sugar the Portuguese were producing in their Brazilian colony – England provided slaves, shipping and the markets. British merchants turned some of the raw sugar into a cheap rum, but sold the rest at enormous profits to a sugar-craved Europe or to their British colonies. The Brits did bring to the Portuguese table radical ideas like democracy and liberalism. These took hold in Porto and in the Portuguese colonies but not in the Royal Court down in Lisbon. Of the four attempts to move towards a more liberal society; on separation from Spain, in the rise of Portugal’s Brazilian expats in the 1800’s, during a brief period as a republic in the 1930’s and on the death of Salazar in the 1970’s, only the last was enduring.

Portugal had at last become a liberal democracy and then part of the EU. At last they could begin to modernise, but that has been slow. Now fat-bottomed English tourists go up river in flat-bottomed boats navigated by locals dressed as peasants, get drunk on port in the wine caves still owned by British corporations on the south bank of the Douro River, and then head to British-owned resorts on Portugal’s beaches. Money still foods out of Portugal to the UK.

This may change with Brexit and with the rise and rise of Portugal as a tourist destination. Apart from a stretch along the river filled with souvenir shops we have loved Porto and its people. There is so much to see and do – even if we never get to go on the tour of the cave cellars with free port followed by a romantic dinner on a wooden boat being served by Portuguese peasant wenches singing Fado and selling cork hats, cork wallets and cork toilet-seat covers. We have loved this vibrant and beautiful city, but a history or art museum is more our thing – believe it or not.

Better let you go Farquar, our punt is waiting….

(Even in a beautiful city like Porto, you still have to hang out the undies)

F C-S