FRANCE. 723 . 
Statistics. nearly all their workmen. But though the general fact the Aisne, and of the Somme, ‘and particularly at San- Statistics. 
- =~" is suffici well established, that the manufactures of -terre. Cotton hosi at Rouen, Troyes, y Pr dion 9 “thee 
| oy al France are at present, almost universally, far inferior to Aube, and Sens.. And in the-departments of the North, cs of 
tion upon what they were previously to the Revolution; yet the and of the Maine and Loire, thread stockings are ma- tion upon 
the manu- ise degree of deterioration cannot be ascertained, nufactured. Sweetmeats at Paris, Rouen, Tours, Or- the manu- 
facturesof even with respect to the most im t of them. We leans, Dijon, Sedan, Bourdeaux, &c. Cotton velvet at factures of 
. Amiens, Muslin, and other cotton goods, at Rouen. France. 
shall therefore be under the necessity of confining our- 
selves to a few brief and unconnected notices on this 
t. 
Phe silk manufacture seems to have suffered the most. 
The number of looms employed at Lyons in 1788, has 
been already stated at 14,777. In 1801, according to 
Peuchet, author of the Statistique de la France, there 
were but 7000 looms, and many of them were unemploy- 
ed. The exposé of the French government rates them 
at nearly the same number in 1814, The woollen ma- 
nufactures of Carcassone were languishing cco 
to the Revolution ; and that event has still further de- 
them. Mr Birkbeck visited the fine cloth ma- 
nufacture of Louviers, in 1814. He represents the esta- 
blishment there for spinning woollen yarn as being on 
a large scale; and mentions that their ing or 
shearing machines -were performing their office with 
are wide awake to mechanical improvements. 
it would appear, that whatever injury this important 
manufacture may have suffered from the Revolution, 
with respect to the demand for its goods, it has been 
advancing in improvements during that time. The 
cotton manufacture undoubtedly has extended during 
the last 25 years ; by the immense drain on 
the population which aparte’s wars with Russia, 
and from that period till the of Paris, occasioned, 
it has latterly in a declining state. Probably the 
searcity and the enormous price of the raw material also 
contributed to their depression. Mr Birkbeck visited* 
a cotton mill at Deville, near Rouen, which employs 
600 ; and he describes the machinery as good. 
Indeed, it is well known, that all the inventions and 
improvements in the cotton machinery with which we 
are acquainted, are used in the French manufactories at 
Rouen. Cotton manufactures have lately also been 
established at Chantilly, in French Flanders, &c. ; and 
it is worthy of remark, that the same complaint is made 
with to the influence of this manufacture on the 
morals of the work e, as has long been made in 
this country. The li manufacture of Brittany, and 
the manufacture of snuff and tobacco which is carried 
on there, ially at Morlaix, have suffered greatly 
during the Revolution. The Gobelin manufacture be- 
gan to decline before that event ; ta was not so 
much in fashion ; and that branch of it which was con- 
fined to the dyeing of scarlet cloth, is now almost en- 
tirely at‘an end, in consequence of cloths of that colour 
being very little worn in France, and theSwiss regiments, 
the officers of which formerly consumed vast quantities 
of cloth dyed of the Gobeline scarlet, being no longer 
employed. We shall conclude this C with a brief 
enumeration of those manufactures which at present 
are the most important in France. Mineral acids at 
Paris, Montpellier, and Rouen. Alum at Paris and 
Montpellier. Baracans, for lining pelisses, at Lisle, 
Amiens, and Valenciennes. Dimities, (éasins,) at 
Troyes, Lyons, Tou!ouse, Chaillot, and Alencon. Lawn 
and cambrics at St Quintin, from which place former- 
ly there were exported to Russia annually a million 
i and Cambray. Prussian blue at Paris. Silk 
Fosiry at Pas, Lyons, Nismes, Montpellier, Ganges, 
and ; worsted hosiery in the departments of 
Cutlery at Paris, Moulins, Langres, Chatelleraut, Thiers, 
Lisle, &c. Crapes at Lyons and Avignon. Gold and 
silver lace at Paris and Lyons. Silk lace at Fontenai, 
Purseaux, Louvre-en Parisis, Saint Denis, Montmo- 
rency, Gisors, &c. Lace made of flax, at Lisle, Valen- 
ciennes, Charleville, Sedan, Besancon, Dieppe, Havre, 
Caen, Puy, Arras, &c. At Dieppe, about 4000 women, 
chiefly wives and daughters of the seamen and fisher- 
men, are employed in this manufacture ; and at Puy 
about 6000. Cloth at Abbeville, Elbeuf, Louviers, and 
in Languedoc. Brandy at Bourdeaux, Rochelle, Cog- 
nac, the department of the Charente, Isle of Rhe, Or- 
leans, Blois, Poitiers, Angers, Tours, Nantes, &c, Imi- 
tations of Hollands gin at Calais and Boulogne. | Artifi- 
cial flowers at Paris and Lyons. Gloves at Paris, Ven 
dome, Grenoble, ‘Avignon, Blois, Montpellier, Grasse, &c. 
Olive oil in the departments of the mouths of the Rhone, 
of the Gard, Var, &c. Serges at Atimale, Seignelay, 
Gournay, Auxerre, Sedan, Abbeville, Beauvais, &c. 
Liqueurs at Montpellier and Rouen. Writing and print- 
ing paper at Angouleme, Montargis, Annonay, &c. 
Stained paper at Paris and Lyons. Perfumeries at 
Montpellier, Grasse, agen and Paris. Porcelain at 
Sevres and Paris. Ribbons adorned with gold and sil- 
ver at Parisand Lyons. Other ribbons at Paris, Lyons, 
Tours, St Etienne, St Chaumont. Ferret-ribbons at 
Amiens and other places in Picardy. Ribbons made 
of flax at Ambert. Bilks at Nismes, Lyons, Tours, &c. 
Silk and cotton stuffs at Rouen. Taffetas at Lyons, 
Nismes, Avignon, &c. Carpets at La Savonnerie, Au~ 
busson, Beauvais, Rouen, Arras, Felleton, &e. Linen 
cloth at Rouen, and other parts of Normandy, Brittany, 
Courtray, Arras, Beauvais, Compeigne, St Quintin, 
Noyon, Peronne, &c. Velvets at Lyons. Verdegris 
at Montpellier. Vinegar at Orleans, Blois, Angers, 
Nantes and Paris, Glass at St Gobins. 
CHAP. VI. . 
Commerce— Shipping—Coasting and Inland T'rade— 
Fisheries—Total Produce of all kinds of Industry. 
As the commeétce of France has been nearly annihi- Commerce. 
lated by the Revolution, we shall give a statement of 
it at the commencement of that event; and, in order 
that some estimate may be formed of its previous pro- 
gress, we shall prefix a statement of it as it existed at 
the end of the reign of Louis XIV. 
I. The importations from Spain into France, at the Between 
of Louis XIV. amounted to the value France and 
of 17,600,000 livres. Of this value, a great part con- SP2in- 
end of the rei 
sisted in specie. There were three methods princi- 
pally, by which the French, at this period, obtained 
part of the “ees or precious metals, which the Spa~ 
niards brought from their South American possessions. 
In the first place, French merchandize was carried to 
Cadiz, and exported thence in the galleons: in the se~ 
cond place, the productions and manufactures of France 
found a ready and extensive sale in ; and, lastly, 
the inhabitants of Auvergne, Limosin, and Gascony, 
annually went into Spain, — they assisted in 
