ST. ETIENNE, an industrial town of east-central France, capital of the department of Loire, 310 m. S.S.E. of Paris and 36 m. S.S.W. of Lyons by rail. Pop. (1931) 170,858. At the close of the 12th century St. Etienne was a parish of the Pays de Gier belonging to the abbey of Valbenoite. By the middle of the 14th century the coal trade was developing, and in the early I5th century Charles VII. allowed the town to build fortifications. The manufacture of fire-arms for the state was begun at St. Etienne under Francis I. and was put under the surveillance of state inspectors early in the 18th century. The manufacture grew rapidly. The first railways opened in France were the line be tween St. Etienne and Andrezieux on the Loire in 1828 and that between St. Etienne and Lyons in 1831. In 1856 St. Etienne be came the administrative centre of the department.
St. Etienne stands on the Furens, which flows through it from south-east to north-west, partly underground, and is important for the silk manufacture. The town is the seat of a prefect, of tribunals of first instance and of commerce, of a chamber of com merce and of a board of trade-arbitrators, and has schools of mining, chemistry and dyeing, etc.
The town owes its importance chiefly to the coal-basin which extends between Firminy and Rive-de-Gier over an area 20 m. long by 5 m. wide, and is second only to those of Nord and Pas-de Calais in France. The mineral is of two kinds—smelting coal, said to be the best in France, and gas coal. There are manu factures of ribbons, trimmings and other goods made from silk and mixtures of cotton and silk. This industry dates from the early I 7th century and is carried on chiefly in small factories (elec tricity supplying the motive power). The attendant industry of dyeing is carried on on a large scale. The manufacture of steel and iron and of heavy iron goods such as armour-plating is im portant and of ironmongery generally. Weaving machinery, cycles, automobiles and agricultural implements are also made. The manufacture of fire-arms, carried on at the national factory under the direction of artillery officers, can turn out 480,000 rifles in the year. Private firms make both military rifles and sporting guns, revolvers, etc. Other industries are the manufacture of elastic fabrics, glass, cartridges, liqueurs, hemp-cables, etc.