France remained the second largest economic power after Great Britain until the mid-19th century. Its industrial revolution started very early, and before the outbreak of the Great Revolution, steam engines and Jenny spinning machines were introduced from England.
Le Crezo Metallurgical Company, which occupies a leading position in Europe, and Onzan Mining Company, one of the largest coal mining companies in Europe, are equipped with advanced equipment such as steam engines, steam hammers, and horse-drawn railways. Individual textile mills use jenny spinning machines.
However, with the outbreak of the Great Revolution in 1789, the war against foreign armed intervention began in 1792, followed by the continuous Napoleonic Wars, coupled with the long-term turbulence of the internal situation. The industrial revolution that had just started had to stop. Although it has also moved in certain gaps, it is extremely slow after all, and it is difficult to become a climate.
After the fall of Napoleon’s Empire, the Industrial Revolution took a turn for the better. In particular, the British government lifted the ban on the export of machinery in 1825, which gave the French industry the opportunity to introduce more advanced machinery and equipment, and took the pace of the revival of the industrial revolution. However, at the time of the Restoration Dynasty, the investment environment was quite unfavorable.
King Charles X, who came to the throne in 1824, went even further and tried to restore the feudal system in an attempt to fully restore the industrial revolution. The July Revolution of 1830 overthrew the Restoration Dynasty and established the bourgeois Orleans Dynasty (July Dynasty). The July Dynasty regarded itself as the successor of the Great Revolution, and the environment of the Industrial Revolution was greatly improved by this, and it began to take off.
By the end of the 1940s, the number of steam engines had increased from 625 to 5,212, and the average horsepower had dropped from 16 to 12.5. The reduction in the horsepower of the steam engine shows that the steam engine has begun to be miniaturized and used more widely. In the past, steam engines were mainly used to pump water from mines during mining, requiring high horsepower. At this time, it can be installed in the textile industry as a power unit. There are already 116,000 spinning machines in France.
The railway, which is an important symbol of industrial development, was built very slowly. Overall, small-scale production still dominates French industry, and there are not many large-scale industries using machines. The industrial revolution still has a long way to go. There are many reasons for this.
Two of them are the most important: first, the political situation has been turbulent for a long time since the Great Revolution. Although there was some stability after the Napoleonic Wars, the Restoration Dynasty relied on the protection of the anti-French coalition bayonet to rebuild its rule. It is difficult to predict how the future will be.
Under such circumstances, the bourgeoisie is reluctant to take risks to invest in industry, and would rather invest its capital in credit business, or even lend it abroad, at the expense of interest. Second, since the 16th century, the financial bourgeoisie has been the most economically powerful. This class made its fortune by contracting and lending bonds, a tradition that has formed over the centuries.
In their view, getting rich with rent profits is not only quick profits but less risk, but also can use the funds in hand to influence the manipulation of the securities market. As a result, they are more keen on money lending and stock market trading rather than investing heavily directly in industry. The July Dynasty was a regime controlled by the financial bourgeoisie, and naturally governed by the will of the financial aristocracy, which hindered the development of the Industrial Revolution.
This contradiction was not obvious at the beginning, but became increasingly acute after the industrial bourgeoisie had developed to a certain extent. This shows that shortly after the French Industrial Revolution really took off, it was hampered by the policies of the rulers. Although the French Industrial Revolution started very early, it has advanced and retreated, stopped and stopped, and has been blocked many times. As a result, funds are insufficient and investment psychology is difficult to form. After more than half a century, the level is still not high. This is its outstanding feature.
The biggest turning point of the Industrial Revolution came after the establishment of the Second French Empire. The Second Empire, ruled by Napoleon III, stabilized the situation by forceful means, and provided a good environment for the Industrial Revolution with various policies in line with economic development. The Second Empire period is known as the “Golden Age of Agriculture”. By the late 1960s, heavy industry and machine manufacturing had developed rapidly, indicating that the first industrial revolution in France had been completed.
