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French Entrepreneurship and Industrial Growth in the Nineteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

David S. Landes
David S. Landes
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

The study of French enterprise and entrepreneurship is rewarding for two major reasons. In the first place, anything that will help explain the present weakness of French industry and commerce throws light in turn on one of the most important political phenomena of the last 150 years: the fall of France from hegemony under Napoleon to the position she holds today. Secondly, the history of French business and businessmen is significant precisely because of France's relatively minor place in the economic world. If we are to weigh the validity of the recent emphasis of theorists on the role of the entrepreneur qua se in the over-all process of economic change—on the contribution of the personal element to the impersonal operation of the system—we must consider not only the more “modern” nations but those less industrialized as well. It will not suffice to study the progress of American or German business and deduce therefrom impressive theories on the importance of the businessman. The converse must also be examined: To what extent are certain attitudes and values inimical to the development of enterprise ? Or concretely in the case of France, to what extent have the character and mentality of the French financier, industrialist, or merchant been responsible for the relatively retarded status of the country's economy ?

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , May 1949 , pp. 45 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1949

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References

1 It would take me far beyond the scope of this article to analyze in detail the economic position of France in the world today. There is a whole literature on the subject. A convenient survey is offered by Martel, A., ed., Grandeur et déclin de la France à l'èpoque contemporaine (Paris: Société d'Organisation et de Gestion, [1946])Google Scholar.

2 There have been few attempts to treat the history of enterprise as such, and these primarily along the lines of an introduction to an elementary course in business administration. Works like Palcwski's, J. P.Le Rôle du chef d'entreprise (Paris: Presses Universitaires, 1924Google Scholar), of which his Histoire des chefs d‘entreprise (Paris: Gallimard, 1928) is simply a popular summary, and Martin‘s, Germain and Simon's, P.Le Chef d'entreprise: évolution de son rule au XX6 siècle (Paris: Flammarion, 1946Google Scholar) fall into this class.

3 For the purpose of this article, the entrepreneur is not only the “innovator” as such but the adapter and manager as well. In other words, the entrepreneur is the businessman who makes the decisions.

4 Febvre, L., “Que la France se nomme diversité,” Annales: Economies, sociétés, civilisations, I (1946), 271–74Google Scholar.

5 It would be easy to substantiate this with the official statistics, especially since the figures are weighted in favor of the small units. But French statistics have always been notoriously unreliable: no businessman worth his salt would think of telling the truth. For this reason, any attempt to “quantify” French economic and social history soon reduces itself to arithmetical guesswork, certain fields like price history execpted.

6 Motte-Bossut: uné homme, une famille, une firme, 1843-1943 (Tourcoing: Privately printed, 1944Google Scholar), passim. Sec below, p. 53, for the De Wendcl family.

7 Perhaps the best example is that of the Anzin coal mines which, though quite capable of undercutting the other basins on the Paris market, found it much more profitable to live and let live. Indeed, at the tariff inquiry of 1832 we have the amusing spectacle of Anzin arguing against a decrease in the duty so that its competitors should not suffer. —Enquete sur Us houilles (Paris, 1832), p. 472 f.

8 Cf. the recent work of Viennet, O., Napoléon et Vindustrie française (Paris: Plon, 1947)Google Scholar.

9 Letter of M. Dupont to Minister of Interior, March 18, 1848, Archives nationales F 12 2224; Letter of MM. Schneider, Boigues, and Bougueret-Martenot to the Président du Conscil, July 1848, Archives nationales F 12 2223.

10 There is an excellent history of the Révillon firm by Marcel Sexé, Histoire d'une famille el d'une Industrie pendant deux siècles, 1723-1923 (Paris: Plon, 1923Google Scholar). It is several cuts above the usual anniversary publication.

11 See, on this point, the brief comparative survey of J. Koulischer, “La grande Industrie aux XVII et XVIIT sièdes: France, Allemagne, Russie,” Annales d'histoire iconomique et sociale, III (1931), 11-46.

12 It was not until 1867 that the formation of a firm with completely limited liability and transferable ownership was permitted by the mere act of registration. On the complications and obstacles imposed by the previous regime, see C. Coquelin, “Des Sociétés commerciales en France et en Angletcrre,” Revue des Deux-Mondes (N.S.), XIII, iii (1843), 397-437.

13 The best picture of the Pereire-Rothschild conflict is still to be found in Plenge, J., Gründung und Geschichte des Crédit Mobilier (Tübingen: H. Laupp, 1903Google Scholar). On Talabot, see Ernouf, A., Paulin Talabot: sa vie et son oeuvre, 1799-1885 (Paris, 1886Google Scholar). The incident discussed is to be found on p. 190.

14 Mayer, Cf. A., La Crise de la structure de la société française (New York: Offprint from the French Review, 1942)Google Scholar.

15 Sombart, W., Quintessence of Capitalism (London: T. F. Unwin, Ltd., 1915), 172–75Google Scholar.

16 Grander, H., Monographic d'un établissement métallurgique sis a la jois en France et en Allemagne (Chartres: E. Gamier, 1909), p. 119.Google Scholar Like most of the few French business historians who have had access to private archives, Grandet is a member of the family concerned.

17 Cf. Lomenie, E. Beau de, Les Responsabilites des dynasties bourgeoises (2 vols.; Paris: Denoel, 1947-48)Google Scholar.

18 See in this regard the fascinating works of Leroy-Beaulieu, P., L'Art de placer et gérer sa fortune (Paris: C. Delagrave, 1906Google Scholar), and Bainville, J., Comment placer sa fortune (Paris: Nouvellc Librairie Nationale, 1919Google Scholar), which provide an exceptional insight into the psychology of the French investor.

19 Hcriat, P., La Famille Boussardel (Paris: Gallimard, 1946Google Scholar). The story, while fictional, is based on actual fact and presents a remarkable picture of the rise of a dynastic bourgeoise.

20 There is no need to analyze in detail the concept of social status. A useful introduction is to be found in Parsons, T., “The Analytical Approach to the Theory of Social Stratification,” American Journal of Sociology, XLV (1940), 841–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Cf. the succinct article, “Gentleman, Theory of the,” in the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.

22 See, for example, the “dime novels” of Baron de Lamothe-Langon, especially La Femme du banquier (2 vols.; Paris, 1832)Google Scholar.

23 Cf. the list of viticulturers given by Férer, E., Supplément a la statistiquc générale de la Gironde (partie vinicole) (Bordeaux, 1880)Google Scholar.

24 Turgan, J., Les grandet mines: études industriclles en France et a I'etranger (Paris: Vol. I, Librairie Nouvelle, 1860Google Scholar; Vols. II-X, Michel Lévy, 1862-74), V, 71. The reference to legislation is to the French Code Civil, which, in imposing a relatively equal division of estates, necessitated the liquidation of business property whenever the heirs could not come to an agreement on continued operation.

25 For this interpretation, see the excellent, if somewhat chauvinistic, lectures of Léonard, E. at the Institut d'Etudes Poliriques published in La Société françaisc contemporaine; études religieuses études politiques (Paris: Les Cours de Droit, 1947-48), fasc. IIGoogle Scholar.

27 Cf. Let grandes families de Lille, Armentièret et environs (Lille: La Croix du Nord, 1937Google Scholar) and Let grandes families de Roubaix, Tourcoing et environs (Lille: La Croix du Nord, 1936-37)Google Scholar.

28 Febvre, L., in Introduction to Moraze, C., La France bourgeoise, XVlll-XX riècles (Paris: A. Colin, 1946), p. ixGoogle Scholar.