FRANCE
=495. Condition of France before the Revolution.=—France was
considered, as the reader will recall, the richest and most powerful
state of Europe till near the end of the eighteenth century. The
population of the country was more than double that of Great Britain,
the resources were envied by all other nations, the commerce was
exceeded only by English commerce and surpassed that in some respects.
The French sugar colonies were considered the most valuable colonial
possession in the world, and France surpassed England in trade with her
direct neighbors (some of the German states, Italy, Spain). Under the
political and economic system, however, which had fastened itself on
the country in the course of time, growth was hampered; and opposition
rose until it burst out finally in the Revolution of 1789. Then
followed a period of twenty-five years of rapid political change and of
bitter war, ending finally with the defeat of Napoleon in 1815.
=496. Effect of the Revolution.=—The losses of France during this
period in men, money, and colonial territory need only to be
suggested; the effect of the wars on French commerce has already been
described. It is proper here to emphasize the good of the Revolution.
In appearance, at least, it swept away all the old institutions, and
liberated the people from burdens which they had been bearing for
centuries. It abolished the former class divisions and inequalities
in taxation; it freed the agricultural classes, and extended the
ownership of land; it amended the former restrictions on the pursuit
of manufactures and handicrafts; and it established perfect freedom of
trade inside the country.
=497. Backward features of industry and commerce.=—No country can make
an entire breach with its past, and France after 1815 was more like
France before 1789 than the reader may suppose. The people had not
acquired the skill and boldness in industry and commerce which the
English had won by generations of experience. The government after
1815 was still highly centralized, with strong absolutist tendencies,
and moved more by personal influences than by far-sighted views of
the welfare of the whole people. These facts appear in the course of
commercial policy followed after the Restoration. France had made
only the barest beginnings in the modern industries depending on
coal and iron, and on the application of machinery, at the time of
the Revolution, and though industries developed when commerce was
interrupted by war, they were weak in organization and technique, and
loudly demanded protection when peace returned, and opportunities for
commerce developed.
=498. The French tariff in the first part of the century.=—The result
was a tariff system which goes far to explain the sluggish development
of French commerce in the first part of the nineteenth century. It gave
protection to shipping, to agricultural products, from wheat to sumac
and garden roses, to the raw materials as well as the finished products
of industry. Colbert’ s tariff of 1664 and 1667 has often been cited
as an example of high protection, but the French tariffs of the period
before 1850 imposed still higher duties on some of the most important
raw materials of industry (wool, cotton, flax, pig and bar iron, steel,
alum); many duties had risen to a prohibitive height, and there were
many actual prohibitions.
=499. Sluggishness of industrial development.=—At the time when England
was building up her system of manufactures, when every decade was
marked by some important step in industrial progress, France resolutely
excluded herself from the influences which would have stimulated
progress at home. While England was endeavoring to keep her improved
machinery in the country, by forbidding export, France aided her by
imposing on machinery duties running up to 100 per cent. Means to spin
linen by machinery were invented by a Frenchman, Girard, in 1810,
but were first utilized in England; and England could show nearly a
million and a half spindles in 1849, against a quarter of a million in
France. A Frenchman estimated in 1827 that the steam-engines in Great
Britain amounted to a force of 6,400,000 laborers, while they amounted
in France to but 480,000. About 1840 there were still less than 2,000
steam-engines in France. The French iron industry was far behind the
English in efficiency and in output, but was secured the home market by
protective duties, and built up large fortunes for the iron producers
at a direct loss to the country estimated to be $10,000,000 a year, and
an indirect loss far larger.
=500. Effect of the tariff on commerce.=—The effect of the tariff in
checking commerce between the two great states in this period can be
seen in the fact that in 1829 less than _one seventieth_ of British
exports were declared for France; England found better customers in
Spain, in Turkey, or in Chile. The amount of trade was in fact somewhat
larger, for smugglers evaded the restrictions of the tariff, and by
a number of ingenious devices (including the use of trained dogs),
succeeded in bringing wares to the people who wanted them.
This one example indicates how the French were losing the opportunities
for commercial expansion which this period offered to them as to other
peoples. No more striking commentary on the history of the commerce of
France at this time can be furnished than the following fact: nearly
sixty years after the French Revolution the special commerce of the
country was only just beginning to exceed the figures which it had
attained at the earlier date.
=501. Reform of the tariff by Napoleon III.=—The astonishing increase
of French commerce in the decade 1850-1860 (from less than two to
over five milliards of francs) was due chiefly to the reform of the
tariff by Napoleon III. Attempts before this time to lower duties had
failed because of the determined resistance and the strong political
organization of the protectionists, but the new Emperor enjoyed
a position of exceptional strength, and was not fettered by the
dependence on the manufacturing class which had stopped action by the
previous government. By his mere decrees he lowered or suspended duties
on agricultural products and on important raw material (coal, iron,
steel, wool, etc.).
=502. Effect of the reform on commerce.=—French industry and commerce,
checked so long in their development, responded with surprising
quickness. In a period of little over ten years (1847-1859) the steam
power of France increased over threefold. The commerce with England,
which in the previous period of twenty years had merely doubled, now
quintupled in ten years. With Portugal and Greece commerce quadrupled;
with Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, etc., it tripled; with Belgium,
the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, the United States, etc., it doubled.
French commerce recovered its lost ground so quickly that, according
to a French estimate, it amounted to more than three-fifths of English
commerce about 1860, and the country took easily second place among the
trading countries of Europe.
=503. The free-trade treaty of 1860.=—At the end of the decade which
we have been studying, in 1860, the movement toward greater freedom
of trade progressed still another stage by the ratification of a
treaty of commerce between France and England. Free traders, of whom
Richard Cobden was the chief, convinced the Emperor that France would
benefit by a further reduction of duties. Cobden asserted that French
operatives worked 20 per cent more time for 20 per cent less wages, and
paid upwards of 10 per cent more for their clothing than the same class
in England; and promised the Emperor that the French would share in the
advantages of the English if they would only adopt a similar commercial
policy. The Emperor, moreover, was desirous of winning the good-will
and support of the English to strengthen his international position;
and agreed to the proposals partly on this account. England abolished
the duties on a number of articles of French origin, and reduced the
duties on wine and spirits; while France removed all prohibitions on
trade, and scaled duties down to about half their former amount in
commerce between the two countries. This treaty, which was to last ten
years from its ratification in 1860, is one of the turning-points in
European commercial policy; it marked the extension of the free-trade
movement from England to the other states of Europe; and it inaugurated
a succession of similar treaties on the part of France and other states
on the Continent.
=504. Results of the treaty of 1860.=—There had, of course, been
opposition in France to the further reduction of duties; and many
people prophesied that the movement to free trade would entail the
industrial ruin of the country. The results did not justify these
predictions. Commerce expanded greatly, as was to be expected; it
grew in the period 1859-1869 from 5.4 to 8 or from 3.9 to 6 milliards
of francs, according as the general or special trade of the country
is taken as the standard of measurement. This commerce, however, was
serving French industry and agriculture, and not destroying them.
There was a marked increase in the importation of the raw materials
of industry; the amount of wool and silk brought into the country
for manufacture more than doubled in ten years, and in spite of the
disastrous effects of the American Civil War there was a considerable
increase in the importation of cotton. The use of coal and iron, both
important indexes of industrial development, extended largely; and the
population engaged in industry and commerce grew by nearly a million
workers in the period 1861-1866. The increase in the products of
French industry found a market both abroad and at home. The exports
of manufactures increased, it is true, but slowly except in the case
of special products; but the consumption of manufactures within the
country extended greatly, as new purchasers appeared for wares which
formerly had been beyond their means.
=505. Return to protection after the war with Germany.=—It has long
been the misfortune of France to have her commercial and industrial
interests at the mercy of politics; and at this point in her growth her
progress was stayed by the outbreak of the great war with Germany. From
the direct losses of the war the country recovered with a quickness
surprising to those who did not realize the thrift and saving power
of the French people. The war led, however, to the overthrow of
the government of Napoleon III, and in time to the overthrow also
of the liberal commercial system which he had established. Though
the commercial treaties were allowed to continue for a few years,
the tendency was strongly toward protection. It was a period of bad
times in business, and French agriculture was beginning to feel the
competition of countries outside of Europe; the new French republic,
with all its merits, lent itself too easily to the representation of
class and sectional interests.
=506. Growth of protective duties.=—In 1881, therefore, a new tariff
was established, which raised many duties about one quarter, though
it allowed many of the higher rates to be abated by treaties with
other states. Proposals to increase duties now multiplied. Not only
manufacturing industry but also agriculture became clamorous for
protection. The duty on a quintal (about 220 pounds) of wheat, which
had been 60 centimes since 1861, was raised to 3 francs in 1884, to 5
in 1887, to 7 in 1894. While in the past the agriculturists had been
free traders they had become by 1890 almost a unit for protection,
whether they raised wheat or cattle, grapes or sugar-beets, hemp or
flax. In 1892 an entirely new tariff was adopted, considerably higher
than that of 1881, affecting some important raw materials, and not
affording the same freedom in the negotiation of commercial treaties.
=507. Attitude of the French toward commerce.=—A writer who published a
study of the French tariff system in 1892 thought that public opinion
would force a revision of the recent tariff if it checked the country’s
commerce. Such was actually its result. Exports and imports did not
reach again the figures of 1892 for five and six years respectively.
Nevertheless the protective duties were raised again in 1910 to a
level far above that which prevailed in the neighboring states of
northwestern Europe. The French had to choose between a career in
commerce and the maintenance of the traditional organization. They
could not extend their trade without lowering the barriers of their
tariff. This step they were unwilling to take, apparently because it
would have entailed efforts and sacrifices in the readjustment of their
industries. The caution and disinclination to change, which mark the
great peasant population of the country, appear to have determined the
course of commercial policy, and to have decided the French to hold
fast to what they had, rather than to take the chances involved in a
struggle for a higher place in the open market of the world. In such a
struggle they were at a disadvantage, because of the scarcity of their
mineral resources and still more because of the many backward features
in their industrial organization. On the other hand they could comfort
themselves with the reflection that few if any of the neighboring
states were qualified as were they to renounce the possible benefits of
trade. The great agricultural resources of the country make possible an
approach to self-sufficiency which elsewhere could not be considered.
=508. Statistics of French commerce in the recent period.=—The table
on page 429, presenting the course of French commerce in the period
immediately preceding the outbreak of the World War, illustrates what
has been said regarding the checks imposed on commercial expansion; and
provides the means of comparison with the commercial development of
other countries.
=509. Position of France in recent commerce.=—In matters of taste
and of artistic finish, in which personal aptitude and training are
the important factors, the French remained unrivaled; in production
on a large scale, in which elaborate organization and the extensive
use of machinery determine success, the French did not compare with
English, Germans, or Americans. Thus the French, though always assured
a respectable position in the commerce of the world, could not hope
to share the progress which other nations attained by the export of
cheap manufactures in great quantities. An Englishman said of the trade
between his country and France in 1878, “Broadly it may be said France
supplies us with our luxuries, and we minister to the necessities”;
even at the close of the century this held true, in general, of the
relations between France and the other great countries. France supplied
objects of art, luxury, and fashion, delicacies and wines, and took
from others in exchange the articles of solid utility, the product of
mines and of power machinery.
SPECIAL COMMERCE OF FRANCE, SELECTED YEARS IN MILLIARDS
OF FRANCS AND OF DOLLARS.
=====================+==================+==================
| Imports | Exports
---------------------+--------+---------+--------+---------
| Francs | Dollars | Francs | Dollars
---------------------+--------+---------+--------+---------
1870 | 2.9 | .6 | 2.8 | .5
1880 | 5.0 | 1.0 | 3.5 | .7
1890 | 4.4 | .9 | 3.8 | .7
1900 | 4.7 | .9 | 4.1 | .8
1910 | 7.2 | 1.4 | 6.3 | 1.2
1913 | 8.4 | 1.6 | 6.9 | 1.3
=====================+========+=========+========+=========
=510. Failure of the government in its attempts to stimulate
commerce.=—Attempts of the French government to stimulate commercial
expansion have not met the expectations of their promoters. The
government has built up a colonial empire about sixteen times as large
as France, but most of the dependencies are in a backward condition,
and their total commerce (including that of Algiers) was before 1914
only about one-quarter of that of France. So far France has lost
money on her colonial enterprises, and there seems no likelihood, in
view of the extremely small emigration from the home country, that
she will recover it. Nor can the results of attempts to build up the
merchant marine be regarded as satisfactory. Measures to protect French
shipping, which disappeared to a large extent during the period of
the movement to free trade, have been resorted to again since 1880,
and have led to the payment of two to four million dollars a year to
aid the building and renewing of French ships. They have done no more
than keep the French fleet stationary while other merchant marines
were rapidly advancing, and seem to have hurt rather than helped the
interests of French commerce. It is noteworthy that of the total output
of merchant ships in France in 1901, 70 per cent of the tonnage was in
the form of sailing vessels, a means of transportation now out of date
for most purposes of foreign commerce; and that two-fifths of the total
tonnage under the French flag in 1912 were in the form of sailing ships.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
1. Burdens from which French commerce and industry were freed by the
Revolution. [Review chap. 25, above; Rand, Ec. hist., chap. 3; Adams,
Growth, chap. 15.]
2. Hayti as a French colony and as an independent state. [A. K. Fiske
chap. 20 ff.; Spenser St. John, Hayti, Lond., 1884, chaps. 2, 3, 10.]
3. Backward political condition of France after 1815. [Adams, Growth,
chap. 18; Seignobos, chap. 5.]
4. Write a report on one of the following topics in French commerce,
about 1850: import and export trade, manufactures, customs tariff,
colonial system. [Homans, Cyclopedia, p. 710 ff.].
5. France under Napoleon III. [Seignobos, chap. 6.]
6. The commercial treaty of 1860. [McCarthy, Hist., vol. 2, chap. 41;
Morley, Cobden, chap. 32.]
7. What is the difference between “general” and “special” commerce?
[Statesman’s Year-Book, France, Commerce.]
8. France under the third republic. [Seignobos, chap. 7.]
9. The protectionist reaction. [Herbert A. L. Fisher, in Econ.
Journal, 1896, 6: 341-355.]
10. The situation of France in international commerce. [Lebon, in
International Monthly, 1901, 3: 252-273.]