Ironmaster

This expression designates an owner and metallurgical leader of establishment of manufacture of Fer, cast iron or Acier.

Birth of an industry

The passage of artisanal workshops of small the rural Métallurgie with industrial dimension gave rise to dynasties of ironmasters established in the areas most favourable with the production, where these families created important cities industrielles.
The control of the production of armament, in Western Europe in prey with the upheavals of the end of the XIXe century, their ensured power and influence.
Great figures of French employers, the of Wendel to Hayange (in the Moselle) and of the Schneider to the Creusot (Saône-et-Loire), count among the examples particularly emblematic of this history.

A paternalist social “model”

The large built industrial cities of all parts at the 19th century by the ironmasters were characterized by an integrated organization crystallizing the social hierarchy of the company. A whole of social works intended for the personnel (residences, schools, churches, services of care, stewardships, relief funds…) aimed to stabilize and put at the service industry a “model” social paternalist sitted on work, the religion, the family (the company itself being projected as vast “a family” of which all the members would be bound by an shared interest).

The Committee of the Forging mills

Created in 1864, the Comité of the forging mills gathered the principal ironmasters, enabling them to extend their sphere of influence in the policy and finance, business world.

Literature, cinema

The novel of Georges Ohnet (1848-1918), the ironmaster , is published in 1882. Edifying novel in a sentimental vein free from very critical social, it was the subject of several film adaptations.

Forging mills of Pesmes
the Five Hundred Million the Begum, novel of Jules Verne, 1879

External bonds

Site on the organization of the forging mills
Site on forging mills of the Rooms