ABSTRACT
For the British historically connected with the port-wine trade who are locally recognized 'first families' in the British enclave in the city of Porto, succession to leadership in the community and the trade is in part a matter of demonstrating effortless entitlement to it. The insular round of day-to-day life in the British enclave in Porto, including regular attendance at church, school and club, presents major sites of elite leadership in part aimed at the control of succession. Ethnographic exploration of their labour and political struggle in the British enclave is part of the recontextualization of port gentry succession. All are brought into the service of producing and sustaining family succession to power and influence in the British enclave and in the port trade. As the social institutional anchor of the port gentry it should not be surprising that the Factory House is a point of passage linking the Gaia-Douro circuit and the British enclave.
