<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="1" > introduction</h1>
The Bank of France has 200 largest shareholders, the so-called "two hundred families". These two hundred families have always held the position of governor of the Bank of France, passed down from generation to generation, manipulating the lifeblood of the country's economy.
For decades the Bank of France has acted as a national bank, enjoying the privilege of issuing banknotes and controlling state loans. At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, after the formation of monopoly capital, the Bank of France further controlled the national economy, directly intervened in national politics, and formed a fiscal oligarchy. The joint organization of the big bankers and the big industrial capitalists, its Mitt Defer (meaning factory committee), could propose a cabinet and overthrow it. In 1877, the Wald-Lussau Cabinet was actually formed in the manager's office of the Banque de France. Prime Minister Reverend Revere in 1905 was a big financier. The Clemenceau government was formed in 1906 with the participation of the managers of the Lyon Trust Company.
During World War I, Clemenceau was asked, "Who has more rights?" He replied, "Governors of the Banque de France." "That's the truth. Indeed, the French Republic is a fiscal oligarchy; "The financial oligarchy, Che, controls both the newspaper and the government. As a result of the development of financial capital, the large amount of accumulated capital is becoming more and more "excessive", and in order to obtain high monopoly profits, the French financial oligarchy strives to export capital. At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, although French industrial production fell back to the fourth place in the world, its capital output was second only to Britain, and it always remained the second place in the world.
Of the new investments in 1910, there were only 779 million francs at home and 3,098 million francs abroad. The amount of capital exported can be summarized. In 1914, the cumulative total output of French capital reached 60 billion francs, a five-fold increase from 1869. France's capital export has two major characteristics: from the perspective of investment regions, it is mainly invested in Europe. In 1910, more than 65% of France's total capital output was invested in Europe. It was mainly invested in Russia, about 12 billion to 13 billion francs; followed by Turkey, 3 billion francs; third, Austria, 2.5 billion francs; in addition to Spain, Belgium and so on. France invests heavily in these European countries, in addition to seeking high profits, but also in order to co-opt these countries politically, militarily and economically, so that they can rely on them economically and politically. For example, in order to resist the german threat of war, France lent Russia a large loan from the 1880s to keep it on its side.
Judging from the nature of investment, "most of them are borrowed capital, state bonds, rather than investments in industrial enterprises." "France engages in investments of this nature, first, because of high profits, the rate of profit is usually above 10 percent; second, because the risk is small, the debtor is a country, and it is not easy to go bankrupt and rely on debts. Even before the emergence of the monopoly class, France invested a large amount of capital abroad for usury, and by the stage of imperialism, which was characterized by the export of capital, France had become the world's main "usurers". In the case of the export of a large amount of usury capital, a large number of rentiers quickly formed in the French big bourgeoisie, who were completely detached from production and lived exclusively on coupon cuts.
By the time of World War I, there were 2 million French rentiers, or about 5 percent of France's more than 39 million people in 1913. This fully demonstrates the high parasitic and decadent nature of French imperialism. The reason why France has become a usury imperialism has its historical roots. In the stage of the emergence and development of capitalism, it is difficult for industry and commerce to develop because of feudal division and the obstruction of feudal politics; second, because of the large number of small peasant economies and small and medium-sized enterprises, usury has a vast field of activity; third, because france is often in war and the situation is turbulent; therefore, the owners of money capital are more reluctant to invest in industry, but are willing to lend money for profit. Thus the development of bank capital significantly exceeds the development of industrial capital.
The Bank of France was founded as early as the time of Napoleon I. Because of its great economic and political power, it is the center of cruel usury exploitation, and it has long been known as the "new Bastille". In this way, the French rentier class at that time grew greatly, and the accumulation of usury capital increased and increased, so that the "two hundred families" were formed into such a fierce parasitic exploitation group. In the stage of imperialism, due to the slow development of domestic industry, it is difficult to satisfy the desires of usury monopoly capital, so a large amount of investment abroad has become the ideal way out. The further massive outward investment of capital further hinders the development of domestic industry; the more difficult it is for domestic industry to develop, the more usury capital flocks to foreign countries. Bank capital leapt to the throne of the French "Taishang government" and became the stubborn center of the French usury forces, firmly ruling France. This is why France became a usury imperialist.
Under the brutal exploitation of the bourgeoisie, the real wages of the French workers fell considerably during this period, and their lives became more and more impoverished. In 1901, the average daily wage for french male workers was 4.2 francs, compared to 4.73 francs in 1911, an increase of 12.6 per cent in monetary wages, and the average daily wage for female workers was 1.98 francs, compared with 2.23 francs in 1911, with a monetary wage increase of 12.7 per cent. But prices are rising even more. In Lyon, for example, between 1900 and 1908, the price of bread rose by 24%, the price of meat by 14.8%, and the price of coal by 14.4%. In order to exploit the workers as much as possible, the French bourgeoisie did not have any social insurance by the beginning of the twentieth century, and the working conditions of the workers were extremely poor and there was no talk of safe equipment.
On March 10, 1906, the Qulleres coal mine in northern France exploded, killing more than 1,200 miners; the next day, in order to continue mining, the coal mining company closed the tunnel and stopped rescuing the workers who had not yet died in the mine, regardless of the lives of the workers. It's inhumane, as for that. Working hours are generally more than 12 hours. The exploitation of child female workers is even more brutal. Female workers are paid half as much as male workers, and child labour is even lower. Many children under the age of nine are forced to go to factories to do heavy work. This made the class contradictions in France increasingly acute. After the defeat of the Paris Commune, the French workers' movement fell silent as reactionary bourgeois rulers intensified their persecution. But only a few years later, it became active again. At this time, with the widespread spread of socialist ideas, the consciousness of the French working class was greatly enhanced.
From 1879 to 1889, workers' organizations formed the Workers' Party headed by the Marxist Gad Lafar at the Workers' Congress in Marseille. It was "the first organization of a genuine workers' party in France". Marx and Engels actively participated in the leadership of the French workers' movement, criticized the opportunistic mistakes of some leaders, and pointed out the correct path for the French workers' movement. The Russian Revolution of 1905 gave great encouragement to the French workers' movement. The workers' movement is on the rise. In 1901, about 100,000 people went on strike, and in 1906 the number of people on strike was as high as 500,700. The Allied strike in Troville was particularly intense in 1908. The strike began on June 30, and Parisian workers organized demonstrations. Fierce street fighting ensued as the army opened fire on workers.
Lenin wrote of this strike struggle: "In France in particular, the sharpening of the class struggle takes on a particularly violent, sharp and often almost revolutionary outburst, when the hatred of the oppressor, which is buried in the heart of the proletariat, suddenly erupts. The situation of "peaceful" parliamentary struggle will be replaced by a real internal battlefield. "At the same time as the revolutionization of the proletariat, the opportunistic tendencies of the French workers' movement grew. The basis of French opportunism was the workers' nobility. The emergence of the workers' aristocracy was the erosion of the ranks of workers by the decadence of French usury imperialism. It is the result of the bourgeoisie bribing the traitors of the workers with their highly profitable scraps.
In the early days of its birth, the above-mentioned Workers' Party was divided into The Gad and the "Possible" by the activities of the opportunists. The Gadeans were essentially Marxists; the possibles were opportunists, opposing the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, advocating the placement of the workers' movement within the "possible" range and the concentration of forces on the city councils of the organs of local self-government. In the resolute struggle to defend Marxism, due to the wide spread of Marxism among the workers, due to the influence of Lenin and the Russian Bolshevik Party, the Left began to form in the French Socialist Party formed in 1905, laying the foundation for the higher development of the French workers' movement and the founding of the French Communist Party.
The development of usury monopoly capital is inseparable from colonial plunder. In the middle of the nineteenth century, France revived its banditry and engaged in colonial expansion, reaching a climax in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with the formation of monopoly capital. In 1881, Tunisia became a French colony and acquired the "right of protection". From 1884 to 1885, France invaded and occupied central and northern Vietnam, provoking the Sino-French War. Laos was forced to become a "protectorate" in 1893. In 1894, the war to seize the island of Madagascar was met with fierce resistance from the local population. The island was taken control in 1896. In addition, it also invaded and occupied a large number of colonies in West and Central Africa. During this period, France also further invaded our country. In 1899, Qiang took Guangzhou Bay as its "leased land". Parts of Yunnan and Guangxi were classified as their "spheres of influence."
In 1900, he joined the "Eight-Power Alliance". The suppression of the Boxer revolutionary movement in our country committed shameful crimes of looting and sabotage in Beijing, Tianjin and Baoding. By 1899, France's colony had grown from 200,000 square kilometers in 1860 to 3.7 million square kilometers, and its population had increased from 3.4 million to more than 56 million, making it the second largest colony in the world after Britain. In order to carry out colonial plunder, France established 20 banks and 136 branches in the colony. In order to ensure the exploitation of usury, the French colonialists imposed a very brutal rule over the colonies. The First World War marked the beginning of the general crisis of capitalism. The period from 1914 to 1939 was the first stage of the General Crisis. Under the conditions of the general crisis, the French economy during this period was even worse than ever, and it was difficult to cheer up.
The First World War was a war of aggression in which the imperialist powers redivided the world. The main purpose of France's participation in this war was to retake Alsace and Lorraine, which had been cut up by Germany in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, and to seize the mineral-rich Saar region on the left bank of the German Rhine. In order to wage war, the French bourgeois government cut civilian industrial production, strengthened arms production, restricted people's consumption, controlled foreign trade, and pushed the French economy onto the war track. As a result of the war, although France was the victor, the damage was very serious because the battlefield was mainly in France, with 1.5 million killed and 200 billion francs of material losses. Industrial: Within the first year of the war, France lost ten northeastern provinces in the industrial centers of coal, textiles, metallurgy and so on.
At that time, 74% of French coal production, 63% of steel production, 94% of the copper industry, 81% of the wool industry, and 80% of the hemp weaving industry were concentrated in this region. During the five years of the war, the region where the best of French industry was located had been occupied by Germany, so that the amount of iron ore mined in France fell from 11.1 million tons in 1914 to 1.7 million tons in 1918, pig iron production from 2.7 million tons to 1.3 million tons, and steel production from 2.8 million tons to 1.8 million tons. Agriculture: Before the war, there were 5.609 million laborers, and during the war, a large number of peasants were transferred to the front, and the labor force was reduced to 3 million. From 1913 to 1918, the area of arable land for wheat, potatoes, grapes, etc. decreased from 7.091 million hectares to 5.818 million hectares. Wheat production decreased from 86.9 million quintals to 77.8 million quintals, and grape production decreased from 5.3 million quintals to 4.5 million quintals.
The loss of the entire agricultural economy is estimated at 9 billion francs. Foreign trade: Due to the sharp decline in industrial and agricultural production, the export of commodities is limited by war and the import of a large number of military materials and grain, resulting in a large number of excesses. Between 1913 and 1918, French imports more than doubled from 8.4 billion francs to 22.3 billion francs, while exports fell by a third from 6.9 billion francs to 4.7 billion francs. In six years, the total turnover reached 65.1 billion francs. In this great war, France owed a large amount of foreign debt. Debt to the United States alone amounts to more than $3.8 billion. This has created extreme fiscal confusion. France's economic position in the capitalist world further declined.
During the war, the arms industry of French monopoly capital flourished. The automotive, aircraft, electrical, chemical and other industrial sectors have developed significantly. 57% of industrial workers are concentrated in munitions production. Monopoly capital has made a windfall, while the masses and soldiers have suffered immense pain and calamity. In terms of inflation, devaluation of the franc and soaring prices alone, between 1913 and 1918 the currency in circulation of the Bank of France surged from 5,665 million francs to 27,536 million francs; the price index for necessities rose from 100.4 to 244.6, and the black market price, which was several times higher, was not included. The increase in workers' wages is far from keeping up with the rise in prices.
The prolongation of the working hours, the increase in the intensity of labour, the mental and physical destruction of the workers, give rise to an upsurge in the class struggle. From 1915 to 1916, there were 413 strikes. Soldiers on the front lines were also brewing anti-war movements. Especially under the influence of the October Revolution in Russia, the struggle became more intense. In 1917, the number of strikes increased to 691, bringing the number of people to 500,000. In addition to the economic demands, the workers demanded an end to the war and the achievement of peace. It was only because of the end of the war in 1918 that the political crisis facing the Rulers of France calmed down.
After the war, France, as a victor, through the struggle to divide the spoils of the "Paris Peace Conference" in 1919, snatched huge reparations from Germany (accounting for 52% of the total German reparations), recovered Alsace and Lorraine, obtained the right to use the Saar coal mines for fifteen years, temporarily occupied the left bank of the Rhine River with Belgium and Britain, and obtained a new colony in 402392 Fangli. This was the revival and development of the French economy, especially heavy industry. Played a big role. In the early post-war period, when many European countries were still in economic turmoil, the French economy had recovered and surpassed pre-war levels. In terms of industry, due to the recovery of the two provinces of Asia and Romania, France has achieved 66 iron melting furnaces and 52 metallurgical enterprises, and the number of steelmaking plants has doubled; due to the adjustment of national borders, French steel production has increased by 75% as soon as it changed hands.
Coupled with the mining of the Saar coal mine, Germany's annual supply of 7 million tons of coal under reparations, and the resumption of production of 200 coal mines that stopped mining during the war, the pre-war coal shortage problem was initially solved. At the same time, the French bourgeoisie vigorously pursued its policy of "industrial rationalization" of the intensification of the exploitation of workers. All this enabled the rapid recovery and development of the heavy industry of French monopoly capital. In 1929, the production of pig iron and steel was about doubled from 1913; the absolute number of pig iron production exceeded that of the United Kingdom, which produced 7.71 million tons of pig iron in this year.
After the war, France's electric power industry, machine building industry, building materials, chemical industry, textile industry, all developed rapidly. The automobile industry has increased by more than five times, the rubber industry has increased by more than eight times, the machine manufacturing industry has risen from the seventh place in the capitalist world to the fifth place, the textile industry has leapt to the third place in the capitalist world and the second place in Europe, and many factories and mining equipment have been modernized. Obviously, this is mainly the development of monopoly capital. In terms of total industrial output, 1929 increased by 35.5% compared with 1913, while Britain in the same period had not yet returned to pre-war levels, only 99.1% in 1913. As for agriculture, arable land abandoned during the war had been restored by 95 per cent by 1925; The production of major agricultural products such as wheat, grapes and horse bells was very unstable between 1919 and 1929, increasing and decreasing, and was in a state of stagnation, not gradually rising like industrial production.
Due to the recovery and development of the economy, France's foreign trade after the war has greatly improved, and the deficit is shrinking. Compared with 1929, the total output increased by more than three times, while the total output increased by only 36.9% (between 1924 and 1927, there was also a phenomenon of overstepping). Among the exported goods, the output value of manufactured goods increased by nearly 3 times, and the input of raw materials increased by about 1 and a half times. In the more than ten years after the war, the recovery and development of the French economy was carried out on the basis of the continuous strengthening of monopoly capital. This can already be seen from the above historical facts, and this point is further analyzed. With the development of industry, especially heavy industry, the concentration of industrial production in France after the war became more rapid.
In 1906, there were only 650 enterprises in France employing more than 500 workers, and by 1921, the number of such large enterprises had increased to 901. In 1906, French enterprises employing more than 50 workers accounted for only 0.38 per cent of the total number of enterprises, and by 1926 it was 0.91 per cent (excluding Alsace and Lorraine). The share of the number of workers in such enterprises in the total number of workers was 30.6 per cent in 1906 and 44.8 per cent in 1926. In the same period, the number of giant enterprises with more than 1,000 workers increased from 207 to 362, and the proportion of their employees in the total number of workers increased from 8.1% to 13.4%. On the basis of the concentration of industrial production, a huge monopoly joint organization has emerged.
For example, the "Ferge Council", with the Sridel and Wander brothers as the backbone, dominated the whole of heavy industry in France; Kurman and The Syngo company Conzén concentrated the chemical industry in their own hands; Syloter Boyo and Renault produced 70% of the products of the automobile industry. By 1929, nearly 90 percent of French businesses were organized in monopolies such as associations and syndicates. The development of financial capital is also very rapid. Take the Rossiel family bank, for example, which has expanded from banking to transportation, mining, chemicals, electrical appliances and other industries. In 1924, the Roche Brothers had a capital of 350 million francs, more than the largest savings bank in France; the Lohir family had more liquidity than the French treasury.
The "Two Hundred Families" further controlled the French national economy, and monopoly rule was further strengthened. The capital monopoly of France is of a tenacious usury character. After the war, although there was a major development in French industry, and although the domestic investment market expanded with the recovery of war-torn areas, capital exports continued to increase. In 1925 the capital output was 10 billion francs. In 1926 it rose to around 17 billion francs. After that, there continued to increase. According to the narrowed figures, France invests at least more than 15 percent of its national wealth abroad. Most of the exported capital is still loaned to Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Italy, Belgium and other countries at usurious rates. This export of capital also has military and political significance. The military and political collusion between France and these countries through loans shows that the parasitic and decadent nature of French imperialism deepened further after the war.
Economic crises are the inevitable companions of capitalism. After the war, with the rapid development of french monopoly capital, the economic crisis also quickly followed. In the autumn of 1929, the world economic crisis first broke out in the United States, and in mid-1930 it affected France. The crisis has also hit France hard. It began with the banking sector, first with the bankruptcy of the famous shell banks, followed by the collapse of many banks, and depositors suffered losses of no less than 3 billion francs. After that, the crisis quickly enveloped the entire national economy. All kinds of production have dropped sharply, machines have been underopened, many factories have gone bankrupt, a large number of commercial banks have closed down, and unemployment has increased sharply.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="29" > conclusion</h1>
This blow brought the French economy back to 1911 levels. On the industrial side, the textile industry and luxury goods production were hit the hardest. In 1934, silk weaving production was 66 percent lower than before the war, cotton was 35 percent, and wool was 26 percent lower. At the beginning of 1935, more than 130 cotton weaving factories went bankrupt. In 1932, Japan began to overcome the crisis, later Britain, then the United States, and only France was not out of the crisis until 1938.