Prologue

Assessing French Economic Development

Some Preliminary Considerations

Plan of the Book

Introduction: Laying the Foundations for Modern Capitalism in France, 1500-1800

Creating France

The Rise of Merchant Capitalism

The Beginning of Industrial Capitalism

Banking and Finance

The French Revolution

Aftermath of Revolution

I. FROM MERCHANT CAPITALISM TO FINANCE CAPITALISM

1. Continuity and Change in Merchant Capitalism, 1800-1840s

Retrenchment and Renewal in Provincial France

Paris and the Remaking of French Merchant Capitalism

2. The Revolution in Banking and Transportation, 1840-1870s

The Banking Revolution

The Transportation Revolution

3. The New World of Financial and Commercial Capitalism, 1870s-1900s

The Maturation of Banking and Finance

Transforming and Transcending the Wholesale Trade

The Beginnings of Mass Retailing

II. THE FLOWERING OF INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM, 1800-1900

4. Textile Capitalism

Cotton

Linen and Jute

Woolens

Silk

5. The Capitalism of Coal

The Birth and Maturation of an Industry, 1700s-1860

The Coal Companies in the Their Prime, 1860-1914

6. The Capitalism of Iron and Steel

From the Old to the New Metallurgy, 1800-1860

The Age of Steel Begins, 1860-1880

7. Hardware, Machinery, and Construction

The Hardware Industry Transformed

The New Metallurgical Manufacturing

8. The Capitalism of Chemicals

Heavy Chemicals

The New Chemicals

9. The Capitalism of Glass, Paper, and Print

Glass

Paper and Print

10. Industrial Capitalism and Consumer Goods

Flour and Breadstuffs

Sugar and Confectionery

Soap and Vegetable Oil

Clothing and Home Furnishings

11. The New World of Industrial Capitalism

Financing Industrial Enterprise

Managing Labor

Managing the Business Environment

III. The Second Industrial Revolution and the Beginnings of Managerial Capitalism, 1880s-1930s

12. Big Steel

The Remaking of French Iron and Steel, 1870s-1914

World War I and Its Aftermath

13. The Electrical Industry

The Early Years, 1890s-1914

Growth, Maturation, and the Rise of Big Business, 1914-1930

14. The Automobile and Its Allies

The Automobile Industry

Tire and Rubber

Aircraft and Aircraft Engines

Petroleum

15. Industrial Chemicals and Materials

The Survival and Transformation of Two Established Powers

Electrochemicals and Electrometals

Industrial Gases

Pharmaceuticals and Artificial Fibers

Big Cement

16. The New World of Managerial Capitalism

Managing the Railroads

Managing the Large Industrial Enterprise

Conclusion: France on the Verge

Notes

Index

Tables

1. The twenty largest French coal companies, 1865-1869 and 1890-1894

2. France's fifty largest manufacturing firms, 1936

3. The twenty-five largest French iron and steel firms in 1913

4. The twenty-five largest French iron and steel firms in 1930

5. France's largest electrical enterprises in 1929-1930

6. Assets and workforces of the largest American, German, and French electrical manufacturing companies in 1929-1930

7. The thirty largest French industrial firms in 1990

Photo ©Jeff Amberg 2004

Michael Stephen Smith is Associate Professor of History, University of South Carolina.