FRANCE. (MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE.) 



249 



The value of capital vested in agricultural pursuits 

 is estimated at 37,522,061,476 francs; the gross 

 annual produce at 4,678,708,885 francs; the ex- 

 penses of cultivation at 3,334,005,515 ; leaving a 

 profit of 3i per cent, on the capital. Previous to the 

 revolution, the produce of the soil in France was 

 burdened with an annual tax of nearly 22,000,000. 

 The cultivators were chiefly metayers, or mere 

 tenants at will, who suppb'ed the labour while the 

 proprietor supplied the capital. The rent paid was 

 generally one half the produce. The cultivators 

 also laboured under a load of degrading and vexa- 

 tious restraints and feudal oppressions ; thus weeding 

 and hoeing were prohibited, lest the young partridges 

 should be disturbed. The proprietors themselves 

 were harassed by capitaineries, which engrossed all 

 manorial rights as far as game was concerned. The 

 game consisted of droves of wild boars and herds of 

 deer, which the farmers were not suffered to kill, 

 wandering over the country to the destruction of the 

 crops. Then there was the corvee, which fell very 

 heavy on the labourers. But the conversion of the 

 estates of the church and the nobility into national 

 domains, and the sale of these in small parcels, and 

 on easy terms, during the revolution, enabled the 

 tenants to become proprietors, the number of which 

 has more than doubled since 1789. The rotation of 

 crops is but little practised in France, where fallows 

 still hold a place in husbandly. The produce of 

 wheat in the best cultivated districts, and on the best 

 soil, hardly exceeds eighteen bushels per acre ; an 

 English fanner expects twenty-five on the same 

 extent. In 1812, the number of horses in France 

 was 2,176,000 ; but, in 1819, the horses and mules 

 together amounted only to 1,657,671 ; at present, 

 the number is estimated at 2,500,000. The number 

 of horned cattle is 6,973,000; of sheep, about 

 45,000,000. The total number of all kinds of poultry 

 is about 51,600,000. The French are the best 

 wine makers in the world. The Champagne, Bur- 

 gundy, Claret, Hermitage (see the articles), are 

 drunk all over the world. For a long time, the 

 choicest growths were in the hands of the church ; 

 and, in the frequent changes of property which have 

 taken place since the revolution, many vineyards 

 have deteriorated in consequence of bad manage- 

 ment. The brandies (q. v.) of France are the best 

 in the world. The value of the whole produce of 

 wine and brandy is about 800,000,000 of francs. 

 The culture of the vine is supposed to have in- 

 creased nearly one-fourth since the revolution, 

 owing principally to the small proprietors, each of 

 whom endeavours to supply his own consumption by 

 a little patch of vineyard. M. Dupiii says, that 

 many hectares of French territory are yet unculti- 

 vated, merely for want of cattle to stock and manure 

 them ; that two-thirds of the inhabitants are without 

 animal food ; that more than one-third subsist entirely 

 on oats, buckwheat, rye, chestnuts, or potatoes, and 

 that the agricultural population is too great for the 

 prosperity of France. Two-thirds of the population 

 is agricultural. 



Manufactures and Commerce. France possesses a 

 soil and climate capable of furnishing her with all 

 the raw materials of manufacture, except cotton. The 

 manufacture of fine woollen cloths at Sedan was intro- 

 duced under the auspices of Colbert. The machi- 

 nery used was very defective until M. Chaptal 

 engaged an English machinist to instruct the French 

 artisans. Steam engines are rare ; the spinning mills 

 being worked chiefly by water or by horses. The 

 quantity of native wool manufactured in 1819 was 

 38,000,000 kilogrammes (of about 2} Ibs. each), and, 

 in 1826, 42,000,000, with 8,000,000 of imported 

 wool : the value of the manufactured articles was 



265,000,000 francs ; of the raw wool, 105,000,000 : 

 the quantity exported was about one-thirteenth of 

 the whole quantity manufactured. By the exertions 

 of Henry IV., the mulberry-tree was cultivated in all 

 the southern provinces. At Tours, silk stuffs for 

 furniture are chiefly manufactured ; at Ganges and 

 other places in the Cevennes, silk stockings. Lyons 

 is the principal place for silk manufactures of all 

 kinds. Paris ranks next after Lyons. In 1812, the 

 value of the raw material amounted to 45,560,000 

 francs, of which 22,000,000 were the price of im- 

 ported silk. The value of manufactured goods, at 

 the same period, was 107,560,000 francs ; of which 

 less than one-third was exported. Forty years ago, 

 the spinning of cotton by machinery was hardly prac- 

 tised in France. Cotton mills have been established 

 within that period, and the manufactures of Alsace 

 are now superior to those of England in the brilliancy 

 of their colours. In 1812, 10,362,000 kilogrammes 

 of cotton were spun by machinery, and, in 1825, 

 28,000,000 of greater fineness. The cambrics, gauze, 

 and lawn of St Quentin, Valenciennes, and Cambray, 

 are among the most valuable products of French 

 industry. Lace is made in great quantities. The 

 whole produce of the linen and hemp manufactures 

 is estimated at 200,000,000. In 1814, 100,000,000 

 kilogrammes of cast-iron were produced ; in 1825, 

 160,000,000. Gilding and watch-making are car- 

 ried on, chiefly in Paris, to the annual value of 

 about 38,000,000 francs each. Printing also employs 

 a great number of persons at Paris. In 1814, the 

 number of printed sheets was 45,675,039 ; in 1820, 

 80,921,302, and, in 1826, 144,561,094. Notwith- 

 standing the low price of labour in France, the indus- 

 try of that country cannot enter into competition with 

 that of Britain. One of the circumstances which* 

 depress it is the want of internal communication by 

 roads and canals. The practicable roads of France 

 are not more than one-third of the extent of those 

 of Britain. The cross roads are few, and the 

 great roads are not kept in good order. The 

 length of the canals in France is not more than one- 

 eleventh of those of Britain. Another point, in 

 which France is inferior, is in the use of steam en- 

 gines, attributable, in part, to the deficiency of coal, 

 or the difficulty of transporting it. The total force 

 of steam engines in France, according to Dupin, is 

 equal to that of 480,600 men ; that of Britain is 

 equal to a power of 6,400,000 men. All the power 

 derived from machinery of every sort, or from con- 

 structive ingenuity, and applied to purposes of indus- 

 try in France, is only one-fourth of the similar power 

 employed in Britain. The commerce of France has 

 been very much diminished by the loss of her colo- 

 nies. The value of the colonial imports, in 1788, 

 was 227,000,000 francs ; in 1824, it was only 

 50,000,000 : the exports for 1788 amounted to 

 119,000,000; in 1824, to 44,000,000. The total 

 value of exports from France, in 1824, was 440,542,000 

 francs ; of which 163,056,000 were productions of 

 the country, and 277,486,000 manufactured articles. 

 The amount exported to the United States of America 

 was 55,000,000, being more than that to any other 

 country. The imports for the same year were of the 

 value of 454,861,000 francs ; of which 272,873,000 

 francs were raw materials for manufacture, 121,957,000 

 natural productions for consumption, and 60,030,000 

 manufactured articles. Since 1824, French com- 

 merce has considerably improved. 



History of France. I. To the time of Charles the 

 Bald. A confederacy of German tribes, having con- 

 quered the Lombards, assumed the name of Franks 

 (the free). This confederacy extended from thci 

 mouth of the Lahn, down along the Rhine, and was 

 composed of the Chauci, Sigambri, Attuarii, Bructeri, 



