Not yet published this thesis is available on

The industrialization of BAS-DAUPHIN: the case of the TEXTILE (end XVIII e century to 1914)

by Jérôme Rojon edited

of Serge Chassagne (University Lyon-II). Not yet published, this thesis is available on .fr

This big proposition relies on an impressive mass of archives, including the papers of families of bankers, industrialists and traders. She enrolled in the wake of the rehabilitation of the actor which is today one of the mainstream research and its place in the role of entrepreneurial networks.

In the first part extends until the middle of the 19th century, Rojon examines how going from the paintings of hemp and cotton to silk, whose work ruralise from Lyon; in the second, which covers the years 1850-1880, he became interested in the dominance of silk that Eclipse other fibres and weaving organizes work way; Finally, in the third part covers the years 1880-1910, he focuses on the necessary adjustments to the textile activities to the new market conditions which impose mechanization, concentration and integration. The thesis shows that industrialization was not a continuous process and linear but, instead, is made of waves that are are superimposed and thrust. In the Bas-Dauphiné, on a case however to industrialization as the author calls a "soft" because it is carried out progressively, without brutal ruptures, and without calling into question the social fabric of pluriactivity.

Fine territories infra-regional analysis makes it possible to identify three distinct trajectories: Voiron where, after a beautiful growth, the manufacture of hemp canvas came into crisis because of the closure of its traditional markets, of the cult of quality among dealers have remained blind to the change of rules of the game, and the erasure of the local scene of Perier family which had long dominated trade paintings; Bourgoin-Jallieu where the cotton industry is located with Swiss capital but whose development has never been up to expectations of its promoters; and finally, La Tour-du-Pin where the silk industry is developed in the orbit of Lyon whose rule over the region changing forms.

This research brings an original study of the proto-industrialisation contribution limit not his explanation to the demographic, economic and social factors classics an overflow of rural population, the fragility of the agricultural economy, a society of micro-propriétaires to also take into account the socio-cultural and political context here, in a society dominated by large landownership, rural weaving appears as the guarantor of the maintenance of the equilibrium of traditional society.

Rojon well the importance of how work in this world of small business, or even micro-enterprises, which gives much flexibility to the Organization of production. Weaving way for lyonnais silk manufacturers, the converters are often the self-made-men, but the group is not homogeneous: each have only a masure and a few looms obsolete, when others were mounted at great expense a mechanical weaving and live in a castle. In addition, their position is fragile because they depend on fluctuations in the silky activity, lack of national political relays, suffer from the poor quality of their networks of alliances and do not always ensure the sustainability of companies.

This beautiful theory speaks of an industrial world long disappeared did not less resonances very current when it refers to the role of SMEs, or even of TPE in growth, the need for a flexible organisation to adapt to changes in markets, and the mobilization of the territories.