France: A Different Path to Industry

France industrialized more gradually than Britain, leading some historians to describe it as 'backward'. More recent scholars argue that France followed a different but successful path. France had less accessible coal, a slower-growing population, and many small peasant farms, which kept more people in the countryside. Its strengths lay in high-quality, skilled production such as silks, luxury goods and fashion.

The Jacquard loom, introduced in 1804, used punched cards to weave complex patterns in Lyon's silk industry, where silk workers known as canuts revolted in 1831 and 1834 over pay. Large enterprises also emerged, such as the Schneider ironworks at Le Creusot, acquired in 1836. A railway law of 1842 created a state-private partnership to build a network radiating from Paris. France's experience shows that there was more than one route to an industrial economy.