INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES. 287 



said of France, as it has been said of Russia, that 

 when a rural industry dies out, the cause of its 

 decay is found much less in the competition of 

 rival factories in hundreds of localities the small 

 industry undergoes a complete modification, or 

 it changes its character in such cases than hi 

 the decay of the population as agriculturists. 

 Continually we see that only when the small 

 landholders have been ruined, as such, by a 

 group of causes the loss of communal meadows, 

 or abnormally high rents, or the havoc made in 

 some locality by the marchands de biens (swindlers 

 enticing the peasants to buy land on credit), 

 or the bankruptcy of some shareholders' com- 

 pany whose shares had been eagerly taken by 

 the peasants * only then do they abandon both 

 the land and the rural industry and emigrate 

 towards the towns. 



Otherwise, a new industry always grows up 

 when the competition of the factory becomes 

 too acute a wonderful, hardly suspected 

 adaptability being displayed by the small in- 

 dustries ; or else the rural artisans resort to 

 some form of intensive farming, gardening, etc., 

 and in the meantime some other industry makes 

 its appearance. A closer study of France under 

 this aspect is instructive in a high degree. 



* See Baudrillart's Lea Populations agricoles de la France : 

 Normandie. 



