Previous to 1898 it was illegal for chambers of commerce to hold joint meetings for the discussion of matters of public in terest, and they were not even allowed to correspond or consult in any way, except through the medium of the minister of com merce. The law passed in that year relaxed this prohibition.
When, in 1873, British merchants in Paris started a British chamber of corn merce in the French capital, the French government looked rather askance at the new venture, and M. Leon Say, when minister of commerce, even threatened it with forcible dissolution unless the title "chamber of commerce" was dropped. This demand was not ultimately pressed, and the services rendered by the British cham ber soon opened the eyes of the French government to the ad vantages which they might derive from the formation of similar institutions to represent French commercial interests abroad. In 1883 the minister of commerce started the organization of such chambers, which endeavoured to combine to a certain extent the French and the British systems, and upwards of 5o French cham bers of commerce have been established in foreign countries, in cluding six in Spain, four each in Belgium and Western Ger many, and the only foreign chamber of commerce in British India (the French chamber of commerce for Western India and the Persian gulf at Bombay). There is a French chamber of com merce in London and another at Liverpool.
Most of the leading commercial countries of the world are represented by chambers of commerce established in Paris, of which the British chamber is the oldest. There are also Belgian, British, Italian, Spanish and Swiss chambers at Marseilles. Spain has in all as many as seven chambers in France.
Consultative Chambers of Arts and Manufactures.— These institutions bear to industry, as their name indicates, much the same relation as do chambers of commerce to commerce. They were instituted by Napoleon as part of the complete sys tem of economic organization which he intended to give France, but are now regulated by decrees of 1852 and 1863. They consist of 12 members elected by manufacturers and merchants and are under the control of the minister of commerce; they are sup ported by the municipality of the town to which they belong.
By the side of the official trade organizations other associations have grown up, which, although regulated by law, are in the nature of volun tary and self-supporting bodies, viz., the syndical chambers of trade and industry. The repeal in 1884 of the law of 1791, which prohibited the formation of trade or professional associations, was the signal for the formation of those chambers, which soon ac quired great influence.
These bodies are organized primarily for the purpose of repre senting and bringing together the interests of the employers and the employed severally, and are divided into chambers of each of these two groups, except in regard to professions where there is a single syndical chamber, as for example, in the case of the brokers (agents de change) of the French bourses de commerce. Syndical chambers do not require Government authorization, and they can only be dissolved by the French courts on the ground of infringement of the provisions of the law of 1884. They take part in the election of judges of the tribunals of commerce.
Out of this organization has been created since the war the central organ of French industry known as the Confederation Generale de la Production Francaise, formed on the proposal of the minister of commerce in 1919 "to contribute to the develop ment of the productive power and export trade of France, and to co-ordinate the activities of the syndicates and professional associations." It consists of 1,5oo such associations subdivided into 26 groups, and its function is to interest itself in all the more important problems of industry and commerce which affect the interests of its members. It may be said to focus the aims of practically the whole of the economic forces of the country.
The state com mercial departments and offices are chiefly centred round the Ministry of Commerce, to which is assigned the commercial part of the duties fulfilled in England by the Board of Trade. This ministry received its present form in 1886. Attached to it is the Conseil Superieur du Commerce et de l'Industrie, which acts as an advisory council to the minister.