21. FRENCH COMMERCIAL BANKING SYSTEM. The history commerce and industry, like the is France itself, naturally falls under rg the old regime and- modern times.
Previous to modern times, the de-,-1. of French industry was limited by system on the one hand, and on the the numerous obstacles, inherited fr-z times, which lay in the way of exchz.-:-: one province to another. Many of stacles were still in existence on the Revolution. However, a progre: ment was to be found, ever since days, in the royal manufactures.
not belong to the king, but were against the guilds' monopolies by conferred by the Crown. We may amon* them the tapestry manufact Gobelins and of Beauvais and the ? factories of Sevres. The private Aubusson (tapestry) ; Rouen, Marselt vine (earthenware) ; Lyons (silk). glassworks in the Vosges— where were long styled gentilshomnies rune- deserve notice.
Foreign commerce was effected through the French ports : Marseille the tradition of commercial naviga: old as the town itself ; Dieppe, the of the famous Angot, and the which sent our ships World; the old French colonies in .2. Indies, Louisiana, Canada and the Ind::: are witnesses to their activity. The , ment of the Compagnie des hides (166 us the metropolis taking an interest nately one too weak and too fugitive - mercial matters. The reader may minded that the commerce between and France which, if circumstanc different, might have developed under of 1786, was at stake throughout the fought by the first consul and the against the English people. , The home commerce was necessan: local; the means of communiczt:e. strictly limited to the rivers, the wer good roads; the towns were torn to be self-supporting and the country had to depend both for their food and lothes on the produce of their labor and housewives' industry.
ore the middle of the 19th the Ina! and road systems and the railway legraph lines had given an incalculable to the latent forces of the country, bring nit a complete transformation of industry mmerce. We may here notice that the ion thus given to commerce and industry !qualed in France that which made itself England and in America about the same ong the principal characteristics of the rcial revival of the 19th c,entury we nention the specialization of goods, the ite extension of the fields open to manu !s, a considerable increase in the cash es and clearing-house statistics, an ever rg demand for capital and its tendency centration and association. Henceforth
e, more and more frequently, societies the place of individuals, and joint-stock nies substituting themselves to the ordi nopartnerships (those among the latter have sleeping partners bear the name of 's en commandite). The co-operation just rued was in France as elsewhere of more !nt occurrence among manufacturers than tradespeople, and there exists in France towns and in the villages a large class nail retailers which have the political th to destroy any great combination that attempt to drive it out of the market. early as the beginning of the modern ', the government had encouraged industry ommerce and given them the institutions wanted. 'The Code de commerce was is in 1807. In order to entrust its applica o fully competent magistrates the French ced a unique and admirable system of ercial courts. The judges of these are red by an electoral body exclusively corn of those subject to their jurisdiction. urisdiction of Prud'hommes was organized same lines, finally the Chambers of Com •, to be elected very much in the same way le courts, were instituted (1803), their ions being to look after the general in s of trade, to advise the public powers requested and to lay before them the !rata of the trading classes. Important were conferred upon these Chambers of aerce, including that of raising certain One of the most useful works under-, by the Chambers of Commerce has been contribution to the organization of cam al education in France. So far that edu i was practically nonexistent; at the pres me it is still comparatiVely little spread. only given in special schools where pupils rdmitted after completing their general Lion.