Cambrics, thread, gauze, lawn, rank among the leading manufactures of the north-east part of France. They are made at St Quentin, Valen ciennes, Cambray, and in a smaller degree at Douay, Chauney, and Guise. Lace is still more general, being made in quantities at Valenciennes Dieppe, Aleneon, Caen, Bayeux, Argentan. Machinery has as yet (1820) been very little applied to this manu facture in France, and the number of women em ployed by it is very great.
The hemp annually grown in France may be com puted, as a raw material, at L.1,200,000, the quan tity imported at L.200,000 ; together, L.1,100,000, a value which is doubled in the coarse, and tripled in the finer manufactures. Of this quantity of hemp the half is made into canvas and thread, a third into cordage, and the remainder into cloth for domestic use. Of the flax annually used, the value, as a raw material, is about L.800,000; a sum which is tripled when made up into thread, linen, and mixed stuffs, and much more than tripled in the finer qualities. On the whole, the value of the finished fabric from hemp is supposed (Chaptal, Vol. II. p. 142) to be about L.4,500,000 That from flax, including lace, - 3,000,000 Add for the domestic manufacture of the peasantry, 2,500,000 Total value made in France, from the stoutest sail cloth to the finest L.10,000,000 lace, French linen differs in quality according to the place of manufacture ; but, in general, it is thicker and stiffer than Irish linen, while, in whiteness, it is inferior to the linen of Flanders and Holland. It is, however, a substantial and durable article.
France has at present (1820) 330 blast furnaces, the position of which is regulated by that of the iron mines. They are chiefly in the moun tainous departments of the Dordogne in the south west, and of the Haute Marne, the Haute Saone, and the Cote d'Or, in the east of -the kingdom. Of forges for malleable iron, called forges a la Cata lane, there are eighty-six scattered throughout differ• ent departments, but chiefly in the hilly part of Lan guedoc." There are also a number of wire works in France, in which, as in the blast furnaces, there has been, since 1790, a progressive but very slow in crease, altogether different from the rapid advance of the iron-works of England previous to 1815. The stationary character of these works has evidently been owing to the deficiency of fuel and of water communication ; disadvantages which prevent the hardware manufactures from being concentrated in cities or populous districts, and cause them to be spread over the country in petty towns or vit.
lieges, with a very limited division of labour, and a consequent inferiority of execution. The result is, that France does not export hardware, and that in no. thing is the inferiority of domestic accommodation in that country more conspicuous than in articles which belong to the province of the locksmith and cutler. The amount of pig iron annually made in France appears (Chaptal, Vol. II. p. 154) to be about 100,000 tons. The value of the hardware of the kingdom, inclusive of cutlery, arms, and other articles of nice workmanship, is computed at L. 8,000,000 or L.9,000,000 Sterling. The annual import of iron and steel is only from L.2,000,000 to L. 3,000,000. In copper, the case is different, the importations greatly exceeding the home pro duce. Of lead, also, the chief part is imported.
In this department France possesses, both from physical causes and from long established manufac ture, a decided superiority. Mulberry trees were introduced in the fifteenth century, and were first planted, not in the south, but in the central part of the kingdom, near Tours. That town was the seat of the earliest silk manufactures, and it was not till 1600 that the culture of the mulberry was carried southward. It is now prosecuted in twelve departments, which, in 1812, produced as follows (Chaptal, Vol. I. p. 181) : Silk in Cocoons. Silk in Cocoons.
Indre et Loire, 35,500 Brought over, 6,175,800 Allier, 6,300 Vaucluse, 2,200,000 AM, 12,500 Gard, . 1,710,000 Loire, 35,50 Herault, 486,000 Isere, . 1,847,000 Mouths of the Ardeche, 2,737,000 Rhone, 878,000 Drome, 1,502,000 Var, 210,000 6,175,800 11,654,800 The mulberry thrives in a variety of soils, and may be planted with success in neglected borders or in waste lands ; the labours of the silk-worm last only six weeks, after which the cocoons are in a state to be purchased for winding or carding. These processes reduce the quantity so much, that the produce of an average year does not exceed 560,000 lbs. sole pize, worth 208. or 21s. the lb.; and 322,000 lbs. organzined silk, at 25s.