La diffusion rurale de l'industrie cotonnière en France (1750-1850)

Abstract

Serge Chassagne, "The rural diffusion of cotton industry in France (1750-1850)". Here are briefly underlined three questions touching the diffusion of cotton industry in the country. First of all, how did this new activity spread itself out in the course of the eighteenth century ? This question compels us to cast a new glance on the too widely accepted connection between industrial and urban developments, and draws the attention on certain trading manufacturers, ill-known and yet efficiently helped by the King's administration. Secondly, how did the mechanization of spinning affect the scattered system of work organization ? The technological improvements neither brought forth a brutal concentration of the production nor ruined the old system of scattered manufacturing. Lastly, who are those rural industry workers ? The example of the Mauges weavers, a region which is nowadays famous for its well-balanced development, provides us with elements of an anthropological survey which demands to be carried on in some other place.