250 SMALL INDUSTRIES AND 



during a crisis in the woollen or cotton trade ; 

 and the workers perfectly well knew it them- 

 selves. 



Whenever a crisis breaks out in some branch 

 of the petty trades, there is no lack of writers to 

 predict that that trade is going to disappear. 

 During the crisis which I witnessed in 1877, 

 living amidst the Swiss watchmakers, the im- 

 possibility of a recovery of the trade in the face 

 of the competition of machine-made watches was 

 a current topic in the press. The same was said 

 in 1882 with regard to the silk trade of Lyons, 

 and, in fact, wherever a crisis has broken out in 

 the petty trades. And yet, notwithstanding the 

 gloomy predictions, and the still gloomier pros- 

 pects of the workers, that form of industry does 

 not disappear. Even when some branch of it 

 disappears, there always remains something 

 of it ; some portions of it continue to exist as 

 small industries (watchmaking of a high quality, 

 best sorts of silks, high quality velvets, etc.), 

 or new connected branches grow up instead of 

 the old ones, or the small industry, taking 

 advantage of a mechanical motor, assumes a 

 new form. We thus find it endowed with 

 an astonishing vitality. It undergoes various 

 modifications, it adapts itself to new conditions, 

 it struggles without losing hope of better times 

 to come. Anyhow, it has not the characteristics 



