FRANCE. 



361 



Austria compete with the Parisian industry, 

 which suffers an annual loss of 70 millions in 

 the value of the exports. The value of silk- 

 manufactures export was 176 millions less 

 than in 1873. In woolens, on the other hand, 

 there was an increase. Those who belong to 

 the free-trade school take the more hopeful 

 view of the situation, and helieve that the re- 

 moval of tariff restrictions would open foreign 

 markets again to the products of French in- 

 dustry. The increase in imports they consider 

 an evidence of accumulated wealth invested 

 abroad, and compare France in this respect 

 with Great Britain and Belgium. 



The destruction of the vineyards by the phyl- 

 loxera was undoubtedly a heavy blow to the 

 prosperity of France. There are indications, 

 however, that the worst period is past, and that 

 this new enemy of the vine willbe broughtunder 

 control like the oidium, which was still more 

 destructive than the phylloxera, reducing the 

 vintage, when it first attacked the vines in 1853- 

 '56, to 15,000,000 and even 10,000,000 hectoli- 

 tres. French viticulture survived this severer 

 stroke, and gradually recovered, until in 1875 

 the wine-harvest attained the unprecedented 

 figure of 83,000,000 hectolitres. 



The industrial expansion of Germany, Aus- 

 tria, Italy, the United States, and other coun- 

 tries, encouraged by protective tariffs, is the 

 element with which the manufacturing indus- 

 tries of France have to reckon. The energetic 

 band of free-trade advocates in France argue 

 that the adoption of restrictive and retaliatory 

 measures by their country has greatly contrib- 

 uted to the difficulties of French industry ; that 

 the effect of refusing to receive the products 

 of other countries in payment for French ex- 

 ports is to close those markets against French 

 products, and that a return to the principles of 

 the Cobden treaty would be the best means to 

 enable the highly finished and therefore prof- 

 itable products of French skill to maintain 

 their position in the world's market. The in- 

 dustrial development of Central Europe falls 

 in a large measure within the most recent com- 

 mercial period. The effect of this new compe- 

 tition is most keenly felt by French manufact- 

 uring, interests. In the development of the 

 factory system, and the organization of produc- 

 tion on a great scale, Germany has made greater 

 strides than France. As long as labor is cheaper 

 in Central and Southern Europe it is only the 

 qualities of taste, art, and finish which enable 

 French manufactures to hold the foreign mar- 

 kets, qualities which are least in demand in 

 times of agricultural disasters and industrial 

 stagnation, like those through which Europe 

 has recently passed. The effect of the indus- 

 trial development in Germany is seen in the 

 returns of French foreign commerce, according 

 to which an excess of French exports to Ger- 

 many of 42,000,000 in 1876 changed to an ex- 

 cess of nearly 75,000,000 on the other side in 

 1878 ; between which year and 1881 the French 

 exports to Germany increased from 343,750,- 



000 to 383,000,000 francs, and German imports 

 into France at an equal pace from 418,333,000 

 to 454.375,000. The exports of silk manufact- 

 ures and dress materials to Great Britain fell 

 from 250,000,000 in 1865 to 114,000,000 in 

 1881 ; those to Germany from 23,000,000 to 

 21,000,000, while imports of German silks 

 increased from 1,000,000 to 12,000,000. The 

 exports of articles of dress and leather manu- 

 factures to the United States declined 30 per 

 cent, in the same period. 



The production of wine in France, which in- 

 creased from 29,000,000 hectolitres in 1880 to 

 34,000,000 in 1881, fell off in 1882 to 30,886,- 

 352 hectolitres, 16,054,830 hectolitres below 

 the average crop of the previous ten years. The 

 vines suffered from the extension of the phyl- 

 loxera and from the long prevalence of bad 

 weather. The vineyards destroyed by the phyl- 

 loxera have been to a considerable extent re- 

 planted with American vine-stocks, which are 

 vigorous enough to resist the parasite. 



The phylloxera appeared in 1882 for the first 

 time in Seine-et-Marne, Cantal, Indre-et-Loire, 

 V'end6e, and Haute- Vienne, making altogether 

 fifty departments visited by the plague. The 

 area attacked comprised nearly half the vine- 

 lands of these departments. The vine-growers 

 at first opposed the official investigation and 

 concealed the symptoms of the malady. Sub- 

 sequently they adopted the plan of preven- 

 tion invented by Pasteur, but no system of 

 comprehensive treatment, either official or co- 

 operative, could be agreed upon. Some twelve 

 thousand wine-raisers-formed combinations for 

 common action. 



Posts and Communications The number of 

 post-offices in 1881 was 6,158, against 5,913 in 



1880 ; number of letters carried in 1881, 569,- 

 910,358 ; postal-cards, 32,224,239 ; letters with 

 declared valuable inclosures, 11,327,262; jour- 

 nals, 345,364,572; circulars, etc., 378,075,770; 

 total deliveries, 1,336,902,201 ; receipts in 1880, 

 112,683,458 francs; in 1881, 123,472,000 francs; 

 expenses in 1880, 79,431,712 francs; in 1881, 

 81,898,988 francs. 



The state telegraph stations in 1881 num- 

 bered 5,481. The length of lines at the end of 

 that year was 73,878 kilometres, comprising 

 69,638 kilometres of overhead lines with 216,- 

 873 kilometres of wire, 685 kilometres of sub- 

 terranean lines with 12,521 kilometres of wire, 

 3,452 kilometres of submarine lines with 3,663 

 kilometres of wire, and 103 kilometres of pneu- 

 matic tubes ; total length of wires, 283,057 ki- 

 lometres. The number of internal telegrams in 



1881 was 17,514,147; of international, 1,952,- 

 017; receipts in 1880, 25,612,399 francs; ex- 

 penses, 31,141,178 francs; receipts in 1881, 

 29,095,048 francs; expenses, 82,222,642 francs. 



There were in operation on Jan. 1, 1883, 

 26,287 kilometres of railroad lines of gen- 

 eral interest, comprising 2,084 kilometres of 

 state lines, 22,282 of lines of companies, and 

 1,921 of non-subventioned lines, besides 2,305 

 kilometres of lines of local interest, and 212 



