FRENCH INDUSTRIALIZATION in the AGE of REVOLUTION 175 0 –18 3 0 the Path Not Taken Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology Jed Z

Jeff Horn The Path Not Taken FRENCH INDUSTRIALIZATION IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTION 175 0 –18 3 0 The Path Not Taken Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology Jed Z. Buchwald, general editor Mordechai Feingold, editor, Jesuit Science and the Republic of Letters Sungook Hong, Wireless: From Marconi’s Black-Box to the Audion Jeff Horn, The Path Not Taken: French Industrialization in the Age of Revolution, 1750–1830 Myles Jackson, Spectrum of Belief: Joseph von Fraunhofer and the Craft of Precision Optics Mi Gyung Kim, Affinity, That Elusive Dream: A Genealogy of the Chemical Revolution John Krige, American Hegemony and the Postwar Reconstruction of Science in Europe Janis Langins, Conserving the Enlightenment: French Military Engineering from Vauban to the Revolution Wolfgang Lefèvre, editor, Picturing Machines 1400–1700 William R. Newman and Anthony Grafton, editors, Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe Gianna Pomata and Nancy Siraisi, editors, Historia: Empiricism and Erudition in Early Modern Europe Alan J. Rocke, Nationalizing Science: Adolphe Wurtz and the Battle for French Chemistry The Path Not Taken French Industrialization in the Age of Revolution, 1750–1830 Jeff Horn The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. For information on quantity discounts, email special_sales@mit press.mit.edu. Set in Sabon by SPI Publisher Services. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Horn, Jeff. The path not taken : French industrialization in the age of revolution, 1750–1830 / Jeff Horn. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBNs: 0-262-08352-3, 978-0-262-08352-2 (alk. paper) 1. Industrialization—France—History—18th century. 2. Industrialization— France—History—19th century. 3. Industrialization—England—History— 18th century. 4. Industrialization—England—History—19th century. I. Title. HC275.H67 2006 338.094409'033—dc22 2006044260 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Acknowledgments vii 1 Divergence, Convergence, and the French Path to Industrial Development after 1750 1 2 A Brave New World of Work: The Reform of the Corporations and the Lettres-Patentes of May 1779 17 3 Foreign Policy as Industrial Policy: The Anglo-French Commercial Treaty of 1786 51 4 The Other “Great Fear”: Labor Relations, Industrialization, and Revolution 89 5 La patrie en danger: Industrial Policy in the Year II 127 6 From Allard to Chaptal: The Search for an Institutional Formula for French Industrialization, 1791–1804 169 7 Facing Up to English Industrial Dominance: Industrial Policy from the Empire to the July Revolution, 1805–1830 211 8 Coalitions and Competition: Entrepreneurs and Workers React to the New Industrial Environment 249 9 Chaptal’s Legacy in a Niche Industry 289 Notes 295 Bibliography 347 Maps 373 Index 379 Acknowledgments This book is the result of a lot of help and support. Initial financial assis- tance came from Margaret C. Jacob’s National Science Foundation grant for “The Cultural Origins of the Industrial Revolution” (SBR-9310699), for which I was a researcher, and from Stetson University. Another NSF grant (SBR-9810232) provided funds for a vital year in France. Manhattan College funded further research and permitted me to take a year at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a welcoming and stimulating place to write. The entire staff there was amazingly helpful, but Carla Chrisfield, Rita Dempsey, Bonnie Edwards, and Trudy Kontoff deserve my special thanks. The faith of these individuals and institutions in my work is greatly appreciated. Peg Jacob, Ed Hackett, and George Smith contributed enormously to getting this project started and enabling me to complete it. Thinking through the problems associated with French industrialization was a wonderful way to spend 14 years. At the University of Pennsylvania, Lynn Hunt and Jack Reece completed the professional training begun by Bob Forster and Orest Ranum at Johns Hopkins. They imparted a holistic approach to French history and instilled a deep appreciation of archival research. They have never failed to inspire and encourage me. In France, innumerable archivists and librarians in Amiens, Bordeaux, Paris, Rouen, Saint-Étienne, and Troyes made this project both possible and enjoyable. Pascal Dupuy generously provided me with access to the library at IRED at the Université de Rouen during my teaching stints viii Acknowledgments there. He also referred me to a number of somewhat obscure but highly useful secondary sources. Daniel Fauvel allowed me to consult the archives of the Société d’Emulation of Rouen. Régine Beaudoin helped me get access to a number of documents in the departmental archives of the Seine-Maritime. Joëlle Luhmann at IRED provided access to useful materials. David Gaultier at CNAM was exceptionally helpful and com- petent. François Crouzet shared his wine and his critique of my conclu- sions. Visiting France to research this book has been a pleasure and a passion. Various groups have encouraged my attempts to figure out what all my evidence meant. My colleagues taught me a great deal when I presented my work to the Johns Hopkins European History Colloquium, the New York Area French History Seminar, the Society for French Historical Studies, and the Western Society for French History. A number of friends have read parts of this manuscript to help me refine my arguments including Cyndy Bouton, Larry Epstein, and Jeff Ravel. Their comments have helped me more than they know. Steven Clay, Suzanne Desan, and Tip Ragan continually reassured me that my data supported my conclu- sions. From Pat Malone, I learned about water power and American industrialization. Steve Kaplan urged me to dig deeper into the relationship between labor and the French state. Joel Mokyr has been a consis- tent source of encouragement and insights into comparative history. Daryl Hafter has shared her wise counsel and appreciation of the ancien régime. Her challenges have led to useful reformulations of old ques- tions. Roe Smith persuaded me to rethink the relationship between state and society during early industrialization. He has been a wonderful men- tor and advocate. From our first meeting hunched over administrative reports in the Archives Nationales a decade ago, Len Rosenband has been an intellectual sounding board, a dogged reader, and a writing teacher: his ongoing help has been invaluable to the conceptualization of this project and to its current form. I also appreciate the practicality and professionalism of series editor Jed Buchwald. Sara Meirowitz has been an extremely helpful editor. My colleagues in the History Departments of Stetson University, George Mason University, and Manhattan College have helped and Acknowledgments ix encouraged me. The interlibrary loan departments of these schools tracked down many wonderfully obscure references for me. My family and friends have looked on this seemingly never-ending project with a mixture of incomprehension, amazement, and forbear- ance. My son David helped me to conclude the book—so I could spend more time with him. This book is dedicated to Julie, who puts up with me. The Path Not Taken 1 Divergence, Convergence, and the French Path to Industrial Development after 1750 This book is about industrial prosperity: how to get it and when it emerges. Standard descriptions of the trajectory of comparative industrialization, such as David Landes’ classic The Unbound Prometheus, depict French industry as unable to compete with laissez-faire Great Britain until after 1850 at the earliest.1 Budding French attempts at industrial competition were unsuccessful, and later efforts were rapidly overshadowed by two emerging industrial powerhouses: an arrogant Imperial Germany and the upstart United States. In many historians’ accounts, the French were permanently relegated to a kind of industrial purgatory. For Landes, the nature of French entrepreneurialism was to blame. The French emphasis on family firms, an “outdated” form of organization that championed austerity, frugality, and high profit per unit sold at the expense of profit maximization and relentless expansion of output, consigned the French to perpetual second-class status. Landes attributed these business choices to cultural preferences; material constraints, exogenous technical considerations, dissimilar labor relations, and political pressures were at best secondary factors in his eval- uation of entrepreneurial decision making and the course of French industrialization. For those who follow this interpretation, French industrial development was held back by regressive institutions like the corporations of the ancien régime. Moreover, the French state’s emphasis on military conquest and its dirigiste approach to oversight of the economy hindered efforts to imitate the classically liberal economic policies that had brought extraordinary industrial success to their rivals across the English Channel. Yet, even as an undergraduate, I remember being struck by the fact that most historians 2 Chapter 1 report that France’s per capita income was roughly comparable to Great Britain’s by the outbreak of World War I.2 How did France

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