Industrialisation in Europe continued

France

After the failure of " la Fonderie Royale " at le Creusot, the site was taken over by two British engineers, Manby and Wilson, in 1826. They re-equipped the factory with modern machines and introduced the latest techniques but all their efforts were in vain, because, during the economic crisis of 1832, it went bankrupt.

It was the beginning of the " railway age " which was to permit France to develop modern industries on the British model. The first steam railway in France opened in 1832 with the completion of the Lyon-Saint-Etienne line. Others followed rapidly, Paris-Saint Germain, Paris-Rouen, Paris- Lyon; and although the money to finance this work came from French financiers and banks (such as the Pereire brothers), the tracks, the civil engineering work and the locomotives were all built by British companies until the 1850’s.

French industrialisation really began in 1836. In this year Eugène Schneider, a wealthy businessman from Alsace, bought the site at le Creusot and began to manufacture railway equipment. (The period 1830-1846 witnessed " railway mania " throughout Europe). In 1838 the first French locomotive " la Gironde " was constructed at le Creusot, after which the Schneider family made its fortune by specialising in railway equipment and, later, armaments (including the famous " 75 ", the finest field-gun of World War 1).

Despite the success of the Schneiders at le Creusot, French industrialisation was never as thorough or complete as the British or the German. France remained basically a rural economy. ( Historians and economists are still trying to explain this.) So, French industrialisation in the 19th. century was steady rather than spectacular. It was also very regional and tended to be concentrated in the big cities such as Paris and Lyon, or the traditional textile regions of Lille, the iron-producing areas of Lorraine and the coal-producing areas of the " Nord " and " Pas de Calais ".

Nevertheless, by the end of the century, France was the most industrialised nation in Europe after Britain, Germany and Belgium and this success was, in large part due to government encouragement during the Second Empire of Napoleon III, (1852-1870).

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