France

Traditionally one of the most powerful countries in Europe and one of the largest economies, France, and until the 1950s, the French Empire, was a dominant force in global business. France still remains important in the global economy in many sectors, and French companies or French products can be found in every country in the world. The Celts in France certainly traded with the Britons in modern-day southern England, and there is also evidence of products from France in parts of southern Europe in this same period. During Roman times, Gaul (as France was then known) was an important center of Samian ware, reddish pottery that was exported throughout the Roman Empire, as was wine from southern Gaul, and sandals and military supplies for the Roman army.

As an entity, France has been a relatively cohesive nation since the Middle Ages, and although parts of it were occupied by the English and other nations, and Burgundy was effectively independent for most of the period, the French language served as a common bond. During the Norman and Angevin empires, when England and much of France shared a single ruler, regular commerce across the English Channel increased, with some of the stones used on Norman castles in England being sourced in France and brought over as ballast in ships.

France was devastated during the Hundred Years War, but it also saw Paris emerge as the major city in the country, and the undoubted center of business, although northern France started to become wealthy through the wool trade and its links with Flanders. This saw the emergence of wealthy port cities such as Rouen and Dunkerque (Dunkirk), and elsewhere in France at the same time, Nantes, Bordeaux, Le Havre, and Marseilles. King Henry IV of France (reigned 1589–1610) managed to help establish a major silk industry, persuading the English Elizabethan clergyman Rev. William Lee to move to France to develop his knitting frame; but the design was never taken up seriously, with the Wars of Religion in France from 1562 until 1598 having done much damage to the French economy.

With Louis XIV (reigned 1643–1715), the country went through a great period of prosperity, which he lavished on the palace at Versailles. Unfortunately, it was also a period when inventions such as the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle designed by Nicolas Cugnot (1725–1804) were not taken up, and in 1685, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes of 1598—the law guaranteeing toleration to the Protestants—led [Page 707]to the flight of many Huguenots from the country. The country remained prosperous under Louis XV (reigned 1714–74) but ran into major problems under Louis XVI (reigned 1774–93), partly over the large budget deficit, the aristocratic reaction to paying higher taxes (or indeed, in some cases, any taxes), and the added cost of financing France's involvement in the American War of Independence.

The French Revolution

The French Revolution led to a transformation in French society. The system of tax farming ended and was replaced with a single and unitary state. Under Napoleon, many of the archaic systems of measurement—which had done much to hinder trade around France and with other countries—came to an end with the introduction of the metric system. Napoleon was also involved in plundering the wealth of many other countries and this in turn helped augment the finances of the French state. However, the constant wars were to drain the country, both financially and also through the loss of so many men in fighting. The French Revolution itself led to many French Royalists such as Marc Brunel (father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel) fleeing the country. Others like the chemist Antoine Lavoisier (1743–94) were executed by the revolutionaries, but some like the statistician Sébastien Bottin (1764–1853), flourished, introducing the business directory Didot-Bottin, which was heavily used in France and overseas, especially in countries in the former French Empire, until the 1960s.

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