Economic History of France

This article, reporting the economic history of the France , begins in 476, at the time of the “fall of the Roman Empire”.

For the economic situation for the previous period, to see Roman Economy.

Economy of France to the Early middle ages

The Roman heritage

Since antiquity, the shopping streets borrow the river axes preferentially and the sea route because the surface transport is difficult and is profitable only for expensive goods. The river basins are connected between them by ways former to the Roman conquest. The expert Celtes out of metallurgy used carriages on axes less built than the Roman ways but adapted better to goods transport (less accentuated slopes for example): famous the Roman Voies is desired before very transferring quickly from the troops or the mails. The Roman Empire with its direct taxation can maintain a plethoric administration and public services: in particular a powerful army, powerful tax authorities being able to manage the Land register necessary to the taking away of a direct tax and schools. However the fact of having to maintain a idle Plèbe weighed down the tax pressure on the colonies on a less and less acceptable level. When the barbarians constituting the auxiliary Troupes Roman army are turned over against the empire and create their clean kingdoms, they preserve the existing economic structures and in particular the shopping streets and the structure of the farms including/understanding many Latifundium (great slave fields). They of as much are accepted better than they do not preserve the heavy imperial tax system and than they do not drive out the elites. From a monetary point of view the solidus of Roman gold remains the basic currency until the Carolingians.

Under the Mérovingiens

If the cruel kingdoms kept the economic structures and the executives of the Roman empire, the tax system was deeply deteriorated by the arrival of these free men and armed on whom it is practically impossible to take a direct tax. Consequently it is not possible any more to maintain a many administration (necessary to take direct taxes), public schools or a balanced army. It sets up a system based on the clientelism and the king remunerates his vassal thanks to the richnesses resulting from the taxation taken of the trade (Tonlieu) and them fines taken thanks to the application of the Salic law (Wergeld). Most of the trade between the Mediterranean and the north of Europe passes by the Rhone-native axis (the connection of the basin of the Rhone and the Saone with those of the Loire, of the Seine, of the Meuse or the Rhine requires only short and not very broken roads). This flourishing trade with long distance is animated in particular by Greek, Syrian merchants and Radhanites (the Latin name of the Rhone east Rhodanus ). The elites leave the cities and are centred on their rural possessions. However if the gold currency is adapted for the exchanges of the trade to long distance which relates to sufficiently expensive products so that it is profitable to transport them with the difficulties that comprises at the time, the exchanges at short distance between city and countryside are generally done by barter. The exploitations thus have tendency to a relative autarky, diversifying their agricultural production, exploiting the forests which keep at the time a considerable feeder role (gathering, porcine breeding, drive out…) and producing they even majority of the artisanal objects which they need. The production of farm surpluses is not inevitably very profitable and there is not a great benefit to invest in equipment increasing the productivity (plow, mills…). In the same way the servile labor noninterested in the product of its work is not very effective. Others propose the effects of the Peste of Justinien that the chroniclers of the time describe like true plagues in the Mediterranean basin with S. These epidemics of plague and of variola recurring disorganize the agricultural work and involve famines what worsens the demographic impact of it.

The mérovingiens do not have any more the means of maintaining their vassal. The safety is not ensured any more by a State déliquescent and is dealt with by the aristocracy. The powerful ones accommodate free men whom they educate, protect and nourish. The entry in these groups is done by the ceremony of the recommendation: these men become domestic warriors ( vassus ) attached to the person of the senior . The lord must maintain these customers by gifts to maintain his fidelity. The gold currency becoming rare because of distension of the commercial links with Byzance (which loses the control of the Western Mediterranean to the profit of the Moslems) the richness can come only from the war: spoils or grounds conquered to redistribute. In the absence of territorial expansion, the bonds vassalic distend, therefore to perennialize a power must extend.

With the Moslem presence in the Western Mediterranean the Byzantine shopping streets cannot pass any more but by the Adriatic. Consequently the axis the Rhone-Saone-Rhine (or the Seine) is supplanted by the axis Po-Rhine-Meuse. The swing in the East of the shopping streets reactivates the areas rich in iron ore which had already been at the origin of the agricultural power and soldier of the Celts. This makes it possible Pippinides to profit from weapons and protections out of steel of good quality increasing their military superiority. The agrarian tools are improved and the productivity increases: Pippinides control more than 90 great agricultural domains on both sides of the Meuse and their power is without equal. Thus, Pépin of Herstal becomes Maire of the palate of Austrasie into 679, control the Neustrie into 687 and takes the title of prince of the Francs. To preserve these conquests its descendants must maintain this policy expansive to avoid the dissolution of their incipient empire. His/her bastard son Charles Martel, must thus reduce revolted the neustriens, then to fix the Frisons, the Alamans, the Bourguignons and Provençaux and with the reduction in the exchanges with the Mediterranean world because of loss of control of the Mediterranean by the Byzantine Empire makes necessary the adoption of a currency struck with a more abundant ore in Europe than gold. In addition one needs a weaker currency of value adapted to the transactions. At the beginning of the reign of Pippinides the various parts of the empire use different currencies, which slows down the exchanges. In 755, Pépin the Brief takes the control of Dorestadt and of the workshops of striking of currency clippings, the king affirms his monopoly to beat currency ordering the striking of a standardized money sum of money, decorated of his monogram. In the same spirit, Charlemagne institutes by capitulary into 794, a system based on a money mass: the delivers corresponds has a weight of 409 grams money. The ground and it book are used as money of account: a “ground of flour” is the quantity of flour which one can buy with 12 sums of money. This standardization of the currency facilitates the commercial transactions through the empire and thus increases the exchanges between the various areas. A true economic revolution is launched, the use of the currency accelerates and is attested even for modest exchanges. One of the implications is that it becomes profitable to produce farm surpluses likely to be sold. Way is led with the demographic development and the progressive change towards a more commercial, artisanal and town company.

The Carolingians took other measures to support the trade: they maintain the roads, support the fairs (Charles Martel authorizes the creation of rural markets in the vici as of 744. In the opposite direction, the slaves are émancipés as serfs managing a ground and remunerating their Master by part of their production or drudgeries and become more profitable (this evolution is done of as much better than the Church condemns the slave system between Christians). The difference between free peasants and those which are not it attenuates. The striking of silver money since several generations, and its homogenization in 781 by Charlemagne is an enormous progress: more adapted than the gold which is not appropriate that for very expensive transactions, the money sum of money allows the introduction of million producers and consumers into the trade-circuit. The peasant can resell surpluses, it is thus interested to produce more than what it is necessary to survive after having transferred part of his production to his lord, use of the Fumure, appearance of the Collier of shoulder and Horseshoe…

In the same way the ecclesiastical landowners as laic provide Charrue S, invest in equipment improving the productivity: water mills (to replace the grinding stones to arms used as long as labor was servile), wine or oil presses (to replace pressing)… The outputs pass from 4 per 1 to 5 or 6 per 1. This progress releases from labor for other activities. The population is protected better from the food shortages and consequently from the epidemics: mortality decreases. The introduction of the currency and a taxation to fixed amount has another effect: it becomes interesting to have children because of the released surpluses they increase agricultural production capacity and are less seen like mouths to nourish. The population growth and the increase in the agricultural production car-discuss in a virtuous circle: they are the key of the medieval revival. This metamorphosis is done gradually, its effects are still not very visible at the 9th century the more so as it is quickly slowed down by the feudal invasions and wars, but the agricultural revolution is in germ and it is concretized fully when they cease at the 10th century. The Great invasions will drive out the servile peasants of the plundered exploitations, they are reinstalled on their account by défichant their own pieces, or are put under the protection of a lord: on the whole the invasions accelerated the process of change of the agricultural world, which becomes more carried on the productivity in order to release from the saleable surpluses.

Vikings and change of the commercial economy

The raids Viking S have a paradoxical action on the economy. Their activity of plundering and piracy doubles of a commercial activity which becomes little by little dominating. On the one hand they must run out their spoils and they strike currency to leave the noble metals which were thésaurisés in the plundered religious goods. This cash which is reinjected in the economy is as we saw previously a catalyst of foreground to the economic transfer in progress. In addition their maritime technological advance enables them to transport goods on long distance. They create many counters on the Européennes coasts, as far as the Mediterranean and trade until Byzance instigating thus considerably the exchanges and the economy. After to have notably disorganized the commercial exchanges, they contribute to the creation of commercial and artisanal cities like York or Dublin directly or indirectly by instigating the trade of the coastal towns and while making flee peasants towards strengthened centers. By doing this they are sédentarisent as in Normandy or Northumbrie. Lastly, their knowledge to make in naval construction is recognized and used by Europeans of north who develop also their fleet. Thus Alfred Large the having overcome Danish leaves them north east of England (Danelaw) in 897 or that Charles Simple the grants the Normandy to Rollon into 911. They are christianized, are integrated in fact into the incipient feudal system and become motive fluids about it.

The industrial revolution of the S

During the Low the Middle Ages, the rise of the continuous agricultural production, and the urban population increases. Cities, such Paris, grow quickly. It was seen the hydraulic mill diffuses oneself for all the medieval period (it is a source of important re-entries financial for the nobility and the Monastère S which thus invests massively in this type of equipment). It gets a driving energy without comparison with what was possible in antiquity. At the 12th century the medieval engineers also develop windmills with vertical pivot (which makes it possible to follow the changes of management of the wind) or with tide which are unknown in Antiquity or the Arab world. With the development of the Camshaft at the 10th century, this energy can be used for multiple industrial uses. Thus appear fulling mills which are used to crush hemp, to grind mustard, to sharpen the blades, to press flax, cotton or cloths (in this important operation in the manufacture of the fabrics the mill replaces 40 workmen fullers)) and more quickly (of the hammers of 80 kg striking 200 blows at the minute. This industry iron and steel industry is very greedy out of wood: to obtain 50kg iron, one needs 200kg ore and 25 steres (m3) of wood: in 40 days only one coal-scuttle deforests a forest on a ray of 1km! This does not pose a problem as long as grubbings are useful for the development of agriculture, but at the 13th century one reaches a limit: the forest keep an important feeder role, wood is essential to construction and with the heating and the nobility draws from the forest trading incomes. Consequently grubbings will be increasingly controlled and the increasingly regulated forestry development. The flight of the price of wood largely supports the architectural revolutions which take place as from the 12th century: the fortifications and the religious buildings are then built hones some and soon the dwellings.

Commercial and financial revolution of the 13th century

As of the 10th century, the nobility must make ostentatious watch of generosity to justify its statute and must thus redistribute the richnesses taken thanks to the right of round of applause. For that it invested in profitable infrastructures (mills, furnaces…), it increases the surface cultivateds what accelerates the process of grubbing and draining of the marshes and finally it supports the trade (creation of fairs, maintains the roads and the bridges to be able to take the Tonlieu). That stimulates the production and the trade with triple titrates: by accelerating the circulation of the wealths thanks to the taxes and to the redistribution, by increasing the productivity and of supporting the trade. The Clergy influences in a way quite as positive the economy being with the point of technological advances and agricultural, which makes it possible the Cisterciens to optimize the outputs, the generated money as well as the many received gifts being reinvested in constructions of religious buildings what reinjects cash in the craft industry. The cities grow, as well as the number of tradesmen and craftsmen. This increase is also supported by the increase in the exchanges with long distance: the Occident has more surplus to run out and a request increased in Eastern products. At that time transport is faster and easy by sea route (or river) that by the roads. The maritime Républiques Italian benefitting from their situation privileged geography grow rich thanks to their densified sales networks after the Croisade S and their powers maritime and financial (they lend to the states) are such as they can benefit from the fights of influence between the Holy roman Empire and papacy, to obtain their autonomy. Same manner, the cities of the north of the Holy roman Empire create sales networks which cover the Baltic and the North Sea as of 1150 and gather around the Hanseatic League starting from 1241, including Lübeck, Amsterdam, Cologne, Bremen, Hanover and Berlin. The Hanseatic cities out of the Holy roman Empire Romain are Bruges and the Polish city of Gdańsk. With Bergen and Novgorod, the league has of workshops and intermediaries. For this period, the German ones colonize is Europe beyond their empire, in Prussia and Silesia. France profits from its central place between Flandres and Italy. The Champagne dukes develop fairs which are a central link of the Européen trade making meet commercial Flemings and Italians. The war between Guelfes and gibelins which prevails in Italy at the 13th century makes flee many merchants and financial Italian what profits at the European cities and particularly with the Foires from Champagne. Textile industry develops particularly. The wool of best quality is produced in England, whose agriculture specializes thorough by the benefit and climatic cooling beginning in the ovine breeding. The wool is transformed into Cloths in Flandres but more largely in all the north of the kingdom of France. These cloths are sold with Italian with the Champagne fairs and are dyed in Italy of North (part of this production is sold then in the East). Of another products such as leathers, fur skins, spices, alums and dyes or horses are exchanged there. France exports also wine, cereals (towards Flandres and the north of Europe) and especially of the salt (essential for the conservation of food) which is produced in Poitou and Brittany and which is dispatched by sea route in the markets Hanséates and English (La Rochelle becomes after its catch in 1224 the large French port for the Atlantic trade). Masters Mediterranean commercial, the Italians are at the origin of progress of the financial sector: in order to make safe the funds, the use the bill of exchanges develops; it as well limits the risk related to transport of funds, as the impact of the changes of ceaseless course of the currency. This is done by the development of the postal network. For mutualiser the risks, the tradesmen join in firms and companies and create independent subsidiary companies: in the event of bankruptcy, the subsidiary company does not involve the collapse of the whole of the company. The Italian bankers with the head of immense fortunes manage the exchanges, lend to the princes and with the popes, the Florin becomes the international currency (kings of France and England minting gold of equivalent mass).

At the end of the 13th century, a Venetian explorer called Marco Polo becomes one of the first Europeans to travel along the Silk route until in China. The conscience of the remote East increase with the reading of its voyages in It Milione . It is followed by many Christian missionaries towards the East, like William de Rubruck, Giovanni da Pian del Carpini, André de Longjumeau, Odoric de Pordenone, Giovanni de Marignolli, Giovanni di Monte Corvino, and other travellers like Niccolo Da Conti. Technological advances support the maritime transport: the ships gain of handiness (Gouvernail of stern post), in the face, and the new techniques of navigation (the Boussole is improved thanks to work of Pierre de Maricourt on magnetism in 1269), mathematical correction of the magnetic Déclinaison and the crossbow which makes it possible to measure the latitude) appear. Certain areas as Flandres are in overpopulation and try to gain cultivable grounds on the sea, nevertheless to meet their needs they choose a saving in trade making it possible to import the agricultural food products. In England, as of 1279, 46% of the peasants have only one cultivable surface lower than 5 hectares. However, to nourish a family of 5 people, it is necessary from 4 to 5 hectares and the tendency to choose an economy based on specialization and the trade cause bad harvests which are translated because of demographic pressure into Famine S (which had disappeared since the 12th century) in the north of Europe into 1314, 1315 and 1316: Ypres loses 10% of its population and Bruges 5% in 1316. In France, the king Philippe VI needs to reinflate the cases of the State and a war would make it possible to raise exceptional taxes.

The rise of the trade made certain areas dependant economically on one or the other kingdom. At that time the transport of freight is done primarily by sea route or river. The Normandy and the Champagne feed Paris via the the Seine and its affluents and are thus pro-Frenchwomen. On the other hand the Aquitanian which exports its wine in England, the Brittany which exports its salt and Flandres which import British wool may find it very beneficial to be English. Thus the Flemings while wanting to escape the French tax pressure, revolt in a recurring way against the king of France. One will note the battles of Courtrai in 1302 (where the French knighthood is rolled) of Mons-in-Pévèle in 1304 and of Cassel in 1328 (where Philippe VI subdue the Flemish rebels). The Flemings bring supports to them with the king of England, declaring even in 1340 qu ' Edouard III is legitimates it king of France. The two States may find it very beneficial to increase their territorial possessions to increase their tax re-entries and to reinflate their finances. Consequently, the intrigues of the two kings to make pass the Guyenne, the Brittany and Flandres under their influence lead quickly to the war between the two States: it will last 116 years. The demographic consequences of the War One hundred Year old and of the Grande plague involve with constant money supply an important rise of the prices. The Eastern products become more competitive then and it is established a trade deficit with the East, with an escape of the cash towards Orient.Cela encourages the trade on long distance and technological advances in the field of navigation, but also makes rare the noble metals in the second time, which makes necessary of the monetary changes (which rarefy the noble metal rate in the cash). The economy succeeds in adapting:

The tax becomes difficult to make accept and since Philippe Beautiful the kings have recourse to monetary changes to reinflate the cases of the state. The mechanism is the following: the State increases the tariff of purchase of metal what attracts some in the workshops monetarist, it strikes then currency out of alloy by lowering the noble metal title what makes it possible to increase the struck quantities and to increase the rate of seigneuriage. These practices which involve devaluations are very unpopular. This dissatisfaction increases with the defeats of Crécy in 1346 or Poitiers in 1356 and led to strong protest movements which lead to the Grande ordinance of 1357 or the Ordonnance cabochienne which aim at founding a controlled monarchy. Charles V then Charles VII manages to restore the royal authority while making accept with the general states the permanence of the tax to finance a standing army against the introduction of a stable currency (the Franc is created on December 5th, 1360). The state finds its credibility by restoring safety of the grounds, of the monetarist and transportation routes: it restores the conditions of an economic re-establishment. It is the creation of a standing army thanks to a heavy taxation which allows the victory in the One hundred Year old war.

the insecurity of the roads is harmful for the economy of France, moreover between 1418 and 1350 France is cut into two because of Civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundian then by the English occupation the southern northern trade is cut: the North-South exchanges périclitent and the trade reorganizes on the transverse axes which make it possible to connect the centers of consumption to the sea. In the north controlled by the English and Burgundian the basin of the the Seine drains the trade between England, Normandy, Champagne and Flandres. Paris the most populated city Occident is an enormous center of consumption (whose fairs replace those of Champagne) and Rouen which occupies a strategic place with the mouth of the Seine become centers of exchanges of first importance. In the south controlled by the French, the Loire becomes the dominating axis commercial, it course moves there what feeds consumption there. The terrestrial axis of trade dominating between the economic poles Mediterranean and Hanseatic becomes the axis valley of the Alpine-Rhine Po-collars to the detriment of the Rhone-native axis. Already in lose speed at the beginning of the 14th century because of competition of the fairs of Trawl-nets placed better compared to the Rhone-native axis (where the S commercial flows accelerate with the installation of the popes in Avignon) and of the intensification of the sea traffic around the Iberian peninsula, the Foires of Champagne périclitent with the profit of Paris, Frankfurt and Geneva (these last located on the new North-South commercial axis become zones of exchanges of first importance). In the same way, Antwerp becomes a place of exchange of first order with depend on Bruges. The trade of the textile is done by sea route by sailing round Spain and for the benefit of the Italian merchants. The commercial role of France, continental power, decreases.
after 1453, the takeover of Guyenne by France deeply penalizes this area which massively exported its wine towards England. In the same way devastated Normandy was strongly penalized by the war. The only coastal region to draw its pin from the Play is Brittany which benefitting from its strategic position for the maritime trade between the Mediterranean and the North Sea, which export its salt and which was throughout the One hundred Year old war on the side of the winners (pro English in 1360, neutral then profrançaise at the 15th century: It develops a honourable commercial fleet, but it very remains late compared to Italian from the point of view of the commercial techniques.
the stop repeated of the traffic transmanche influence strongly the Flemish textile industry which, at the beginning of the conflict, imports English wool. To fill this lack, the English will make themselves less dependant on Flandres economically by directly transforming their wool into clothing. For that, they are helped by the incentive measures of king d' Angleterre who taxes clothing much less than wool and which dice 1337 grants broad privileges to any foreign workman being established in the cities English while prohibiting the wool export towards Flandres and the importation of cloths. Vis-a-vis this situation, many tisserands Flemish itinerants come to try their chance in England. Before the Great plague, Flandres undergo a demographic crisis which involves a strong emigration). The Flemish clothiers import their wool of Spain then (what will economically make logical integration to the empire of Habsbourgs, whereas the bonds with France decreased with the loss of influence of the Foires of Champagne) and develop raw materials of substitution like the flax.
English competition decreasing the profits of the tisserands, the Flemish economy develops other activities like the banking environment. The kingdom of France also tries to make up for its commercial lost time. Jacques Cœur undertakes to upset commercial hegemony Italian in the Mediterranean and to reactivate the Rhodanienne way. It arms with the galères to the expenses with the king and revival the port of Montpellier. After its disgrace Louis XI continues his work and support the establishment of the fairs of Lyon. This way with indeed a large advantage compared to the way of the collars alpine which supplies the fairs of Geneva and Frankfurt and which is practicable only has back of mule: far from broken the passage of heavy carriages allows. However, because of intensive use of artillery by the French at the end of the war of great progress summers carried out in the design of the carriages have. The terrestrial cost of transport falls: between 55 and 73 sums of money per transported ton and kilometer if one resorts to a beast of burden against only 9 to 12 sums of money if a carriage is used. France remains especially exporting cereals, salts and cloths.

Lastly, the progressive evolution towards the noble metal shortage and the increase in the trade with the East push with the establishment of shopping streets towards Asia and to find new sources of noble metals. Starting from the middle of the 15th century any growth with the Great discoveries. So the results of the marketing policy privileging the Rhone-native axis are mitigated because too late: at the end of the 15th century with the Othoman projection (Constantinople falls in 1453) the Mediterranean trade lose of its dynamism, it is by the Atlantic which the richnesses forward.

Rebirth with the First Empire

General considerations on the economy in the Old Mode

Like the previous centuries, those of the Old Mode are marked by the prevalence of agriculture. At the 18th century, the agricultural sector occupies always approximately 85% of the population, i.e. the essence of the rural population. In term of value, its importance is much lower, but insofar as the craft industry of the campaigns is dependant on the agricultural activity, and that the whole of the social system rests on the land and buildings, agriculture remains the decisive economic sector. According to him, the retreats of the agricultural production, compounds to the incompressibility of food consumption, cause rises of the prices, all the more big as the marketed share of the production is reduced (Autoconsommation). The fall of the agricultural activity, related to the contraction of the profits, causes the rise of the number of the rural unemployed. In the cities, the rise in the price of the bread modifies the distribution of the budgets in discredit of the consumption of artisanal goods, from where the bankruptcy of the workshops. Only some land great landowners profit from the flight of the farm prices. The weak diversification of agriculture and the lack of agricultural trade between areas do nothing but worsen the risk of such crises. Economic stagnation results finally in a big rise of mortality.

The vexations of the agriculture of the old mode are mainly related to the tax system of this period. The peasants indeed saw following one another the indirect taxes (assistances), the size and bases, in particular the gabelle one. The size included/understood at the same time a size known as real, calculated on the volume of the agricultural production, and a size known as personal with the flat-rate amount. The size represents between 60 and 70% of the income. As the peasants were almost never owners, to the taxes the seigneuriaux rents and rights, so that the vital minimum was generally preserved, without surplus to be marketed were added.

The 16th century

To evoke the wars of religion

Agricultural misery

The 16th century is marked in France by a cooling of the climate (estimated at 1°C) whose effects on agriculture were important: the crises of subsistence are frequent in second half of the century. Over the century, the price of setier of wheat to Paris triple, without it not being about a simple monetary phenomenon: the price of the nonfood goods not knowing a similar progression. This rise of the farm prices derives from an important demographic dash between 1450 and 1580 which brings back the French population to its level of 1320. On this level of population, demographic rise runs up against the absence of real agricultural progress since the 14th century.

Although rare, France knows however certain agricultural innovations. New species, before wild or coming from other countries, are cultivated: the melon, the Artichoke, the strawberry S, the Raspberry S, the Currant S or the Cauliflower. Other cultures, like that of the Carrot, are improved. Remote grounds arrive of the new products, like the buckwheat in Normandy. The Turkey and the Pintade are brought back from Americas. But although the metal Bêche S multiply, this some progress does not transform really the rural world.

With final, the 16th century sees the development of the Paupérisation and the increase in the economic inequalities. This impoverishment, related to demographic recovery, appears in a stagnation of the incomes not making it possible to the peasants to face the progressive flight of the prices. At the end of the 15th century, 60 work hours make it possible the average Strasbourg eois to buy a quintal Blé, it is necessary 200 of them for him about 1570.

Progress of industry and the craft industry

If the 16th century is synonymous with impoverishment for the agricultural majority of the population, technological advances in the other branches of industry ensure a relative prosperity to them. The works on mechanics multiply.

In the daily life of the easy minority of the population, the panes gradually replace the fabrics and translucent papers applied to the windows, or sometimes the stained glasses; the rich families are equipped with Fourchette S, of Armoire S, Horloge S and of Carrosse S answers him by initiating the Quantity theory of money: it is the noble metal surge of Americas, via the Spain, which, allowing an additional emission of currency, involves a rise of the prices (Inflation by the monetary emission). These debates contribute to the appearance of a laic economic thinking: the Mercenary attitude.

At the 17th century

in this time, Europe knows serious demographic problems and especially, demographic crises

At the 18th century

Agricultural changes?

The system of the common property and the open field (open fields) implies many constraints: the principal one is the respect of the Three-year rotation and its calendar decided by the village community. Collective loads and a right of common grazing land are added to it. The England puts an end to this system that she judges unproductive and vermin with the innovation to develop the personal property and the enclosures . Certain French areas of the South practice a biennial system (the ground is at rest one year out of two) even less productive, while in the West certain peasants cultivate until total exhaustion of the ground. The outputs remain very weak on average: from 4 to 5 grains collected for 1 sown grain, which implies that a quarter or a fifth of harvests cannot be consumed. The meadows are rare as well as the fodder grounds, and the weakness of the breeding results in a lack of Fumure, making essential the Jachère to reconstitute the fertility of the grounds. The volume of harvests and the farm prices are subjected to the climatic risks, and thus to brutal fluctuations with the important social consequences.

However the model of England inspires the French elite and causes a passion for the Agronomie, but which is not necessarily followed by the peasants. The criticism of the open field does not lead to the systematization of enclosures because of popular resistance. A fiscal policy in favor of the clearing is installation. According to Jean-Claude Toutain, the country knows between a 1700 and 1780 improvement of a third of the agricultural outputs, which would result in a rise of 60% of the production on the whole of the century. The average annual rhythm of the agricultural growth would be about 0,3% in first half of the century, and 1,4% in the last third.

Perhaps can one see in the demographic rise of the 18th century, which sees the population passing from approximately 21 million inhabitants at the beginning to approximately 28 million the day before the Revolution, a sign of agricultural progress. Until worms the middle of the 18th century, it is always on important food shortages that the population growth ran up, the famines agreeing with the points of mortality. In second half of the century, if one still sees food shortages occurring, they are shorter and more localized. The reduction of the amplitude of the fluctuation in agricultural prices at the time of the crises attests this progress. Voltaire note:

“One wrote useful things on agriculture; everyone lute, except the plowmen.”

First steps of an industrial takeoff

Contrary to the situation in England, no industrial sector is dominating in France. The textile production is diversified: the Laine is dominant, but industries of the flax and the Soie are also important. Other sectors like the building and the food industries (the Sugar refineries of Bordeaux, for example) have an importance similar to that of the textile. The Metallurgy, it, remains little developed. On the geographical level, these industries are relatively dispersed. The concentrations, like that of silk in Lyon, remain rare, in spite of the existence of regional specializations.

In the cities, the craft industry is the fact of the corporation S, i.e. of organizations managing the whole of the production of a type of good in a city. With the State, they regulate in a strict way the activity which relates to them, gathering in their center employers, workmen and apprentices. They fight against the development of the Capitalisme and the emergence of the modern industry in order to protect their trades.

With final the French industrial growth remains, on the major part of the 18th century, higher than that of England (the latter knows a strong acceleration about 1780).

The rise of the foreign trade and finance

The foreign trade of France makes important great strides at the 18th century. Between 1716-1720 and 174-1788 its value has quintuplet, which because of variation of the prices must represent a doubling in volume. This expansion was very strong in first half of the century (at intervals of approximately 3 % per annum) then more measured thereafter (1 %). On the other hand, growth of the Importation S.A. be faster than that of the Export S, bringing a trade deficit at the end of the Old mode. In relative term, the share French commercial in the world commerce was half of that of the English trade in 1720 (respectively 8 and 15 %) while it equalizes it in 1780 (12 % for the two countries). The rate of opening of the economy (ratio exportation/PIB) fluctuated, passing from 8 % in 1720, with 12 % in 1750, before decreasing with 10 % in 1780. The nature of the exchanged products reveals France like a relatively industrialized country: exporting manufactured goods, important of the raw materials.

A big part French commercial is done with the Raising, but also with the colony S, and this in spite of the dislocation of the first colonial empire by the Traité of Paris of 1763. The Sugar, the Coffee, the Indigo and the Coton are the principal productions of the French West Indies which are in full expansion, as attests of it the multiplication of the Esclave S in these areas: between the end of the 17th century and 1789, the number of slaves in the French West Indies passes from: 40000 with: 500000. If the milked French is less important than that organized by the English and the Portuguese, it takes part however in the development of certain large ports like Nantes and Bordeaux. These two ports ensure the trade with the Antilles and re-exportations towards the other European countries, while in the Mediterranean, Marseilles develops thanks to the Italy, the Spain, and Raising it.

At the beginning of the century, the regency of Philippe of Orleans is marked by the introduction of banknote by the English John Law, but the Système of Law undergoes a speculation and discredits for a long time the fiduciary emission of Monnaie in France. In a total way, finance is one of the main issues of the State with, it causes inclinations of reforms, desired not men like Vauban (in its Projet of dîme royal in 1707, it wishes to impose all the incomes, nobility included/understood), Turgot or Necker, but to which the established order is opposed. The support for risen of America does nothing but increase the financial problems.

Revolution with the Empire

Over the period 1789-1815, France is durably made outdistance by its neighbor of on the other side of the channel. Whereas England knows what Walt Whitman Rostow calls its Take-off , a vigorous industrial takeoff of a score of year, France undergoes one period of deceleration of its economic development, in spite of a regime change favorable to the Bourgeoisie.

Economy and the Revolution

From 1784, France knows a series of agricultural crises, which results in industrial crises according to the model of the crises of Old mode. The rise in the price of the bread, which absorbs 90% of the budget of the workers in 1789, is synonymous with contraction of the outlets for the artisanal activities.

The French industrialists also complain about the effects of the Traité Eden-Rayneval, trade agreement signed with Great Britain in 1786, shown to put in difficulties industries of certain cities.

With these problems is added the risk of Banqueroute of the State due to its strong debt and the absence of tax reform. It is the financial problems of France which justifies the behavior of the General states, starting point of the Revolution.

The Revolution, initially carried out by the middle-class, has many economic consequences. Initially the feudal Droits disappear the August 4th, 1789, disappearance which modifies the division of the real estate completely. However, initially, the situation on the most modest behalf of the farming population in is changed little. This measurement, which combines with the various confiscations of the goods of the Church and the nobility expatriate, allows initially the middle-class men and to the peasants easy to recover grounds, before the resale of smaller pieces does not profit with more most of the population.

The Individualism and the Libéralisme of the middle-class find their expression in the Déclaration of the human rights and the citizen of 1789 (it makes Private property an inviolable right), the Décret of Allarde and especially the Loi the Hatter who prohibits the corporations and the coalitions (thus the Syndicat S) and founds the principle of the Marché like mode of regulation of the economy. The interior customs are removed.

The disorders of the Revolution make that this liberal inspiration is applied little in the facts, and leaves the place with Réquisition S, an authoritative administration of the prices and wages, or to the monetary instability related to the Inflation of the Assignat S.

Economy under the Consulate and the Empire

If France inherits the Napoleonean period of important administrative progress, she does not know however an outstanding economic success at that time.

In the administrative plan, the Commercial law of 1807 supports the development of companies by actions: it distinguishes the partnerships, which will dominate at the 19th century, the public limit companies (subjected to the prior approval of the State), and the limited partnerships. The Cadastre makes the taxation more effective and just. The creation of the Banque de France (1800) and of the germinal Franc (1803) sets up a stable monetary system.

The wars of the Empire worsen the demographic weakness and their financing rarefies the capital, however the military orders stimulate certain industries. The obstacles which raises to the trade the maritime war allow the rise of economic activities of substitution whose typical example is the Beet sugar. However, the total result of the maritime war is the collapse of the French foreign trade from which the ports suffer from the Atlantic. The reduction of the trade prevents the Technology transfer from England and causes difficulties of provisioning for the industry of the country: the Coton is four times more expensive in France than in England.

In agriculture, the results of the Empire seem not very convincing. The Potato spreads, it takes part in the retreat of the fallow. However, over the period the 1803-1812 average annual growth rate of the agricultural produce is only of 0,3%, a rate lower than the population growth however weak (0,5%). The country property progresses, but the division of the grounds with died between wire (according to the Civil code) causes the crumbling of it.

In industry, it is the Belgium which profits, within the Empire, of the development of the Métallurgie and the production of coal. Progress of textile industry does not prevent England from increasing its advance in the production of cotton fabrics. One however notes many innovations which take part in the prosperity of sectors like the Soie in Lyon (weaving loom Jacquard) or the first developments of the Chemical industry (Soude by Nicolas Leblanc during the Revolution) a periodicity among 7 and 10 years in the movement of the businesses. These fluctuations form part themselves of longer cycles, one duration of a half century and including a phase of prosperity and one of deceleration, noticed by Nikolai Kondratiev. The most famous interpretation of these crises is that of Joseph Schumpeter. According to him, bunches of Innovation at the beginning of boom are synonymous with temporary revenues for the companies which hasten to borrow to benefit from it, thus stimulating monetary creation and the whole of the activity. In the second time, the innovations being generalized, the companies do not resort any more to the credit and the money supply ceases growing, the activity is reduced while the prices tend to drop.

Industrial starting

Handicaps and advantages the day before industrial takeoff

At the beginning 19th century, France suffers from a certain number of handicaps which prevent it from knowing an economic growth comparable with that of the United Kingdom.

Side of the request, the weakness of demographic rise, compared to other country of Europe, reduced interior outlets, while the external plan, the British domination of the seas harms the trade temporarily. France does not manage to be competitive in industries of the moment (cotton fabrics) and must concentrate on exports for which the importance of quality confers sometimes an advantage to him out-price: its industrial tradition equipped with the country of a qualified labor.

The effort of England to maintain its technological leadership , which takes the form until 1843 of a prohibition of exit of the machines, profits in France. In spite of this prohibition the technology transfers are allowed by the passage of machines in spare parts, English technicians, and by the observation of French industrialists, while overall the country is constrained to develop its own mechanical engineering industry, thus avoiding a technological dependence in the long term.

Agricultural progress

The economy of France of the 19th century remains dominated by agriculture, while the settlement of the country remains primarily rural. According to the quantitative history French agriculture knows between 1820 and a 1870 growth, which from the historical point of view, is exceeded only by that of the shortly after the Second world war. The average annual growth rate of the agricultural produce over this period reaches 1,2%. The operated area increases with the extension of the culture of the Betterave, fodder cultures or more generally with the retreat of the Jachère. Some innovations like the first Threshing-machine S, the replacement of the Sickle S by false and the progression of the Potato also contribute to this prosperity.

In a general way this progress contributes to a rise in the Purchasing power, which stimulates the rise of industries of Consumer goods. They take part in the reduction of the crises known as of “old mode” in which an agricultural crisis is reflected on industry.

It is notable that many historians of the economy, like Paul Bairoch or Walt Whitman Rostow, make “agricultural Révolution” a stage of the development and a condition of industrial takeoff.

The starting of industry under monarchy

Are added to agricultural progress another factor favorable to the takeoff of industry: the development of the Transport S. the traditional network (exclusion of the railroads) has more than triplet between 1815 and 1848, with the digging of channels to ensure the provisioning of industries, and the development of the highway network. Between 1800 and 1850, the road transport costs are almost divided by two.

It is between 1820 and 1840 that Walt Whitman Rostow locates the French “take off”. Indeed, over the period 1815-1848, the industrialization of the country knows a strong acceleration. In 1815, France produced approximately 120.000 tons of cast iron, primarily with the Bois, production which goes up to 450.000 tons in 1848, of which approximately the half with the coke. The first line of Railroad is open in 1832, and the network reaches 3000 km in 1850. Between 1790 and 1820, the production of Houille had passed with difficulty from 0,8 million tons to 1,1 million, that is to say an increase in 37% over one thirty years period. Over the thirty years which follow, this production goes up to 5 million tons, that is to say an increase in 350%. In the textile, the number of pins with to spin the quadruple Cotton between 1815 and 1848”

In fact, years 1850 and 1860 are the occasion of a real economic prosperity.

With the financial plan, Napoleon profits from the economic situation: the gold discovery in California and Australia. The big part of this gold which finishes in France allows the monetary rise, which stimulates the businesses. In addition at that time the network of the investment banks is set up: the Frères Pereire set up a system of financing per obligation of the companies, which, in spite of the bankruptcy of the bank in 1867, influence the remainder of the sector, where the Rothschild preserve their position. Other banks to provide long-term credits, the Building and loan association is created in 1852. The network of the deposit banks appears also at the time: the industrial and commercial Credit (1859), the Crédit Lyonnais (1863) the General society in 1864. These banks make it possible to drain the money of the small savers. The clear distinction of the deposit banks and the investment banks will be done only gradually, on the initiative of Henri Germain, founder of the Crédit Lyonnais in order to ensure the stability of the banking system. It consists in not lending the saving of short term in the long run.

In its liberal phase, the Empire softens also the legislation on the creation of the companies: the creation of public limit companies is completely liberalized in 1867, after a partial liberalization since 1863.

Public works set up by the Second Empire are very important. The railway network passes from 3000 km in 1850 to 17.500 km in 1870. Napoleon encourages the realization of the Suez Canal, inaugurated in 1869, which revolutionizes the maritime transport between Europe and the Indian Ocean. The rise of the Railroads stimulates the iron and steel industry directly. Public works include/understand also whole the restoration of Paris by the Baron Haussmann, as well as other cities like Lyon. Napoleon III is also convinced of the virtues of the Libre-échange: he entrusts to Michel Chevalier to secretly negotiate with Richard Cobden a trade agreement between France and the United Kingdom. This one, signed in 1860 is described as “commercial Coup d'etat” by the French industrialists who fear to be cast by the competitiveness of the British economy. However the treaty causes the multiplication of the agreements of free trade between the various European nations, creating, because of Clause of the most favoured nation, a first relative era of free trade on the continent. Always on the scale European, Napoleon III dreams of a monetary union which leads on the creation of the Latin Monetary Union.

Finally Napoleon III sets up a real industrial relations policy: he grants the right to strike in 1864, and decides in favor of the suppression of the working Livret. The proletariat discovers the right to strike, the middle-class the department stores: Aristide Boucicaut creates Bon Marché in 1852. This creation is followed by the appearance of famous signs: In Spring (1865), Samaritaine (1869).

The Third Republic

The war of 1870 and the crisis of 1873-1896

The “beautiful Time”

Following the depression, the France knows until the First World War one period then new of growth, which will be a posteriori qualified “Belle Time” the shortly after the Great War.

The reversal of the economic tendency is difficult to date with precision, the date of 1896 is generally retained because it corresponds to the return of the rise of the prices. Thus according to Square Jean-Jacques, Paul Dubois and Edmond Malinvaud, the growth rate (average annual rate) of the industrial product spends 1,6% over the period 1870-1896 to 2,4% over the period 1896-1913.

Industrial rise is partly related to the technological Innovation S, whose example par excellence is the Automobile, sector appeared with the two centuries turning and for which France becomes the second world producer. If it is at that time that appear the great names of this industry like Peugeot, Berliet or Renault, the sector remains very dispersed: one counts 155 car manufacturers in 1914 thus. If the innovation dates from the beginning of the period, it is at the end that she knows her true boom: 45.000 cars are produced per annum whereas only 107.000 are registered. France develops other new industries also precociously, like the Aéronautique or the Cinéma.

Among the still recent industrial sectors, the electricity at that time makes also important great strides: its consumption is multiplied by five between 1900 and 1913. Dependant on electricity, develop besides certain metallurgical industries (the Aluminum, whose production multiplies by ten between 1900 and 1913) and chemical. Traditional industries also benefit from the economic situation: the metallurgy sees its outlets widened by new industries and develops particularly in Lorraine.

In 1945, the provisional government, chaired by communist Charles de Gaulle and composed of , socialist and gaullists, nationalizes the key sectors of the economy (energy, air transport, deposit banks, insurances) and of the large companies (Renault…), creates the Social security and the work's councils. The economic planning is entrusted to Jean Monnet

Socio-economic transformations: the “invisible revolution”

To describe us the depth of the changes of life, Fourastié presents to the beginning of its book two villages.

Madeira is a village of 534 Christian inhabitants , among which 279 are “active”, others being young people of less than 14 years or women “domestic”. About fifteen people are reprocessed. One can count 208 Agriculteur S (three quarters of the working population), 27 Artisan S, a dozen tradesmen, a comparable number of Ouvrier S and a little more “Employé S”. The three quarters of their consumption are intended for their food, composed for half of Pain and potatoes. To buy a Chicken, the average worker of Madeira must work 8 hours.

Cessac is a village of 670 inhabitants. Its chicken, the inhabitant of Cessac only has it for on average 45 minutes of work, 11 times less than the inhabitant of Madeira. Although the population is more important than in Madeira, Cessac counts less credits: they are 215. Among the latter, only 53 are farmers, more than 100 have lines of business.

One could conclude from it that Madeira is a village in a country “in the process of development” and Cessac that of a rich country. In fact, it is about the same village, Douelle close to Cahors. Madeira, it is Douelle in 1946, Cessac: Douelle in 1975. The differences between the two result from a “invisible revolution” which in thirty years transformed France.

To evoke demography and education

The economic policy

The IV {{E}} République sets up a system known as of mixed economy: the large companies, for, are nationalized much. The State dominates the banking environment, and energy; he is actor of the technological advancement in the Aéronautique or the Informatique (Plan Calculation) and of the social progress (the fourth week of paid vacations is allotted by Renault, state enterprise). By its control of a great number of companies and thanks to the inciting planning, it ensures the main trends of the economy. He encourages also the concentration of the French companies in order to create “national champions” such as Saint-Gobain, PSA or Pechiney-Ugine-Kuhlman.

Throughout the period, the State is also the instigator of great work of infrastructures and residences. It thus develops the electrical communication and highway, as well as the railroads.

The State also hopes that the external opening, thanks to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (1951) then of the European Economic community (1957) will push, by the constraint of competition, the French companies towards modernization. This policy ends in the creation of a Free exchange zone with the majority of the adjoining countries and in the stimulation of the agricultural production thanks to the common Agricultural policy as from 1962.

The Inflation is frequent during the Thirty glorious ones, but it is only punctually fought (by Antoine Pinay in 1952 for example). It constitutes a form of financing of the economy: by ensuring the depreciation of the debts it contributes to the weakness of real interest rates.

The arrival of De Gaulle to the capacity in 1958 results in a relative liberalization of the economy: Jacques Rueff is in charge of the installation of a New franc of a value of hundred old francs and manages to solve the economic equilibrium (Budget deficit, Inflation…), some are worsened by the Guerre of Algeria.

From the middle of the years 1960, the government sets up the legislation favorable to a saving in Financial market and liberalizes banking. The Debré laws of 1966 and 1967 announce for example the end of the banking Spécialisation (legal separation between deposit bank and investment banks) inherited the 19th century.

Principal economic sectors

The Thirty glorious ones are in France one period of strong sectoral discharge. In 1946, the primary sector employs 36% of the credits, the secondary and the tertiary sector each one 32%. In 1975, the primary sector does not occupy more than 10% of the credits, against 39% to the secondary and 51% with the tertiary sector.

The retreat of the number of agricultures is only with the increase in the productivity: in 1946,10 agricultural workers 55 people nourish, against 260 in 1975. French agriculture is firmly constant with part of 1962 by the installation of the common agricultural policy, a system of provision subsidy whose objective is to ensure the self-sufficiency of Western Europe the food plan. Ten year are enough to fill this objective. With respect to the other economic sectors, agriculture is however declining, the distribution of the household expenses is the leading cause: the food accounts for 44,2% of the household expenses in 1949, and only 25,9% in 1974

With the industrial sphere, the energy needs of France increase enormously during the Thirty glorious ones, worsening its dependence with the importation: in 1973 France imports 75% of its primary energy. This dependence is related to the abandonment of the policy of coal to orée of the Sixties in favor of oil, then more competitive. The nuclear power develops as from the years 1960 but remains marginal. All the sectors progress, but in relative term, it is the importance of the industry of energy, intermediate good and equipment which grows more. The democratization of the car, then of apparatuses like the television sets, refrigerators, and the washing machine the linen explains this tendency (cf table Ci below).

}} " |- bgcolor=" #cccccc" ! Rate of equipment (in %) ! 1960 ! 1975 |- |Television set ! 10 ! 82 |- |Washing machine ! 22 ! 68 |- |Car ! 30 ! 61 |- |Refrigerator ! 22 ! 86 |}

The structure of the foreign trade of the country shows a lack of competitiveness of French industry vis-a-vis its counterparts German, American or Japanese: liberalization has more significant effects on the imports than exports.

The development of the services is done in particular in the financial branches (banks and insurances), telecommunication and the public administrations, to a lesser extent the trade and transport. On the other hand the domestic services know a considerable retreat. The development of the tertiary sector directly the feminization of work joins.

The “contemporary crisis”

The unemployment and the crisis of the Welfare state

Changes of the French economy

Notes and references of the article

See too

French history

External bonds and documents

Classification of the documents per period:

Antiquity
the Middle Ages
Modern history
Modern history:

Jacques Marseilles, “Napoleon. Its battles economic”, '' the Expansion '', November 2004
Jacques Marseilles, “the commercial law are 200 years old”, '' the Stakes, the Echoes '' March 2007
Jacques Marseilles, “1826: Did inauguration of the Temple of the Money”, '' the Stakes, the Echoes '', December 2006
Jacques Marseilles, “Victories and vexations of colonial France”, Marianne, December 2004
Jacques Marseilles, “When the French innovation hustle the world”, '' the Stakes Special, the Echoes '', July 2007
Jacques Marseilles “the miracle of “the thirty glorious ones”? ”, '' the Stakes '', N° 220, January 2006
Jacques Marseilles, “Of Jules Méline in Jacques Chirac: the country eternal”, '' Marianne '', December 2005
Jacques Marseilles, “Rise and fall of the French model”, '' Capital '', August 2005
Jacques Bournay and Pierre-Alain Pionnier “French economy: ruptures and continuities of 1959 to 2006”, INSEE First n°1136 - May 2007

Works on the subject

Antiquity
the Middle Ages
Modern history
Modern history:

Jean-Charles Asselain, economic History of France of the 18th century at our days (2 volumes), Threshold, coll Points History, 1984
Alfred Sauvy, economic Histoire of France enters the two wars (3 volumes), Fayard, 1965
Jean Fourastié, Trentes Glorieuses , nvlle edition, Hachette Literatures, coll Pluriel, 2004 (1979)
Daniel Cohen, Misfortunes of prosperity , Julliard, 1994
Pierre Rosanvallon, the Crisis of the Welfare state , 1981

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