The Emergence of Modern Business Enterprise in France, 1800–1930

Hardcover

ISBN 9780674019393

Publication date: 01/15/2006

In this magisterial study, Michael Smith explains how France left behind small-scale merchant capitalism for the large corporate enterprises that would eventually dominate its domestic economy and project French influence throughout the world.

Arguing against the long-standing view that French economic and business development was crippled by missed opportunities and entrepreneurial failures, Smith presents a story of considerable achievement. French companies made major contributions to the Second Industrial Revolution of 1880-1930, especially in ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, electrochemicals, industrial gases, and motor vehicles. Rejecting the notion that France took a separate route to economic modernity, Smith argues that it tracked other industrial nations along a path dominated by large-scale production and corporate enterprise. Technological and organizational capabilities acquired by French companies prior to 1930 played a key role in the country's rapid economic recovery after World War II and its broader economic success in the second half of the twentieth century. Smith also addresses the distinctive characteristics of French economic and business development, including the pivotal role of the French state, the pervasive influence of French financiers, and the significance of labor conflict.

This superb account is an invaluable contribution to business history and the history of modern France.

Praise

Michael Smith has compiled the first essentially complete record of modern business enterprise in France. He details, sector by sector, the rise of leading firms, whose similarities far outweighed their differences with counterparts in other countries. This study makes a valuable, long-needed contribution and will serve as the reference for all subsequent work within the field.

—Michael B. Miller, University of Miami
A wonderful work, heroic in its ambitions and level of research. With his comprehensive coverage of the span of French economic and business history, Smith explains why France must be considered alongside Britain, Germany, and the United States in discussions of the dynamic growth of modern capitalism.

—Walter A. Friedman, author of Birth of a Salesman
Smith's writing is clear and articulate. His organizational structure remains consistent throughout, which is critical given the vast amount of material he seeks to synthesize...By recasting our perspective on the development of French "big business" through a comprehensive synthesis of the current literature and the application of individual histories of some of France's most important firms, Smith has made a valuable contribution to the field, useful for specialists and nonspecialists alike. He is to be commended for his effort and accomplishment

—Eileen S. DeMarco, American Historical Review
Smith has produced an extremely useful synthesis of a vast number of studies of business history, as well as of his own research...[He] offers a well-developed...assessment of the shifting balance between continuity and change in the economy during the nineteenth century.

—Roger Price, English Historical Review