Early Industrialization: The Transformation Begins

French industrialization proceeded differently than in Britain or Germany. While Manchester's cotton mills and the Ruhr's coal mines epitomized industrial concentration, French industry remained more dispersed and artisanal. This had profound implications for work culture and labor relations.

In Lyon, the silk industry developed a unique system of distributed production. Master weavers (canuts) owned their looms and worked in their homes, maintaining the independence of traditional craftsmen while participating in industrial production. When silk merchants tried to reduce prices paid for finished cloth in 1831, the canuts revolted, raising the banner "Live working or die fighting!" The army suppressed the uprising, killing hundreds, but the event marked the beginning of modern French labor consciousness.

The Lyon uprising demonstrated characteristics that would define French labor relations: the fusion of economic demands with republican ideals, the willingness to use violence when pushed to extremes, and the state's readiness to deploy force against workers. It also showed how French workers maintained craft identities and traditions even as they entered industrial production. Unlike the fully proletarianized factory workers of England, many French industrial workers saw themselves as skilled artisans temporarily selling their labor.

The July Monarchy (1830-1848) witnessed the emergence of mutual aid societies, technically illegal but tolerated successors to the guilds. These societies, ostensibly focused on providing insurance and burial funds, became centers of worker organization and political discussion. They preserved guild traditions of solidarity and collective action while adapting to new industrial realities.

Saint-Simonian socialism, developed by followers of Count Henri de Saint-Simon, provided an intellectual framework for reimagining industrial society. The Saint-Simonians argued that society should be organized scientifically, with leadership by industrial experts rather than hereditary aristocrats. While their technocratic vision differed from worker radicalism, it contributed to the French belief that economic organization should serve social goals rather than mere profit maximization.