TRADE ORGANIZATION IN FRANCE Chambers of Commerce.—French chambers of commerce owe their origin to the city of Marseilles, where, in 1599, the town council, which had hitherto looked after the commercial interests of the city, found it no longer possible to combine com mercial with municipal functions, and established an association which it called the "chamber of commerce" to take up the com mercial part of its duties. This seems to be the first time that the title was used. Although the new chamber soon became a most important body, lettres patentes were not granted until 1779. It settled the merchant law and the customs of the port, was en trusted with the appointment of consuls and the control of French consulates in the Levant, fitted out expeditions against corsairs, owned fleets, sent embassies to the Barbaresque countries, and also organised commercial missions. Louis XIV. conceived the idea of a system of organizations which, whilst not being allowed to become so dangerously powerful as that of Marseilles, would nevertheless be useful in other towns, and in 1700 he caused an arrete to be published, ordering the creation of cham bers of commerce, which were entrusted with the nomination of deputies to the royal council of commerce which had just been created in Paris. Chambers were consequently established in Lyons, Rouen, Toulouse, Montpelier, Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Lille, Bayonne, Amiens and other towns. These bodies, however, did not exercise much influence under the monarchy. Including the Marseilles chamber, they were suppressed, with all trade guilds and other trade associations, in 1791. Napoleon re-established the chambers by decree of Dec. 24, They are now (1929) regulated by the law of April 9, 1898, modified by the law of Feb. 19, 1908, which codified, altered and completed previous legislation on the subject. Under this law, chambers of commerce can only be established by a decree coun tersigned by the minister of commerce, upon the advice of the municipal council of the place where the chamber is to be, of the general council of the department, and of the existing chambers of commerce of the district. The members of French chambers
of commerce, whose number is fixed for each chamber by the minister of commerce, are elected by the commercial houses pay ing patente, a special tax levied upon persons engaged in Their functions, which are consultative and administrative, are set out in part ii. of the law of 1898. The government is bound to take their opinion regarding the regulation of commercial usages, the establishment of public institutions of a commercial or finan cial nature, such as "bourses de commerce" or commercial ex changes, and of tribunals of commerce, the improvement of trans port and communications, the application of laws of a local character, the sale price of prison-made goods and the tariff for prison labour, and local public works, and loans or taxation in connection therewith. On the other hand, they are allowed to submit observations to the government, without being asked, on proposed changes in the commercial or economic legislation of the country; on customs tariffs and regulations; on railway, canal and river rates; and on transport regulations. As regards their administrative functions, they may be authorized to establish and administer such institutions as bonded warehouses, public sale rooms, fire-arm testing establishments, conditioning rooms for wool, silk and other commodities, commercial, professional, or technical schools and museums. They may be granted conces sions for public works, and may undertake the carrying out of public services, especially in regard to the ports, docks, canals and navigable rivers in their districts, which in general they manage under the supervision and control of the State exercised through local resident officials. In 1924 a new policy was incorporated by laws which made Havre and Bordeaux autonomous, i.e., in dependent of State control, and placed them under bodies nomi nated as to the great majority of their members by the cham bers of commerce of the city and of neighbouring towns in each case. Since the World War the chambers of commerce have undertaken most of the burden of new expenditure on ports.