these lines, some of which were handed over to the great companies, while others were retained in the hands of the government, forming the system known as the Chemins de Fer de l’État. Next year a large programme of railway expansion was adopted, at an estimated cost to the state of £140,000,000, and from 1880 to 1882 nearly £40,000,000 was expended and some 1800 m. of line constructed. Then there was a change in the financial situation, and it became difficult to find the money required. In these circumstances the conventions of 1883 were concluded, and the great companies partially relieved the government of its obligations by agreeing to contribute a certain proportion of the cost of the new lines and to provide the rolling stock for working them. In former cases when the railways had had recourse to state aid, it was the state whose contributions were fixed, while the railways were left to find the residue; but on this occasion the position was reversed. The state further guaranteed a minimum rate of interest on the capital invested, and this guarantee, which by the convention of 1859 had applied to “new” lines only, was now extended to cover both “old” and “new” lines, the receipts and expenditure from both kinds being lumped together. As before, the sums paid out in respect of guaranteed dividend were to be regarded as advances which were to be paid back to the state out of the profits made, when these permitted, and when the advances were wiped out, the profits, after payment of a certain dividend, were to be divided between the state and the railway, two-thirds going to the former and one-third to the latter. All the companies, except the Nord, have at one time or another had to take advantage of the guarantee, and the fact that the Ouest had been one of the most persistent and heavy borrowers in this respect was one of the reasons that induced the government to take it over as from the 1st of January 1909. By the 1859 conventions the state railway system obtained an entry into Paris by means of running powers over the Ouest from Chartres, and its position was further improved by the exchange of certain lines with the Orléans company.
The great railway systems of France are as follows:
1. The Nord, which serves the rich mining, industrial and farming districts of Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Aisne and Somme, connecting with the Belgian railways at several points. Its main lines run from Paris to Calais, via Creil, Amiens and Boulogne, from Paris to Lille, via Creil and Arras, and from Paris to Maubeuge via Creil, Tergnier and St Quentin.
2. The Ouest-État, a combination of the West and state systems. The former traversed Normandy in every direction and connected Paris with the towns of Brittany. Its chief lines ran from Paris to Le Havre via Mantes and Rouen, to Dieppe via Rouen, to Cherbourg, to Granville and to Brest. The state railways served a large portion of western France, their chief lines being from Nantes via La Rochelle to Bordeaux, and from Bordeaux via Saintes, Niort and Saumur to Chartres.
3. The Est, running from Paris via Châlons and Nancy to Avricourt (for Strassburg), via Troyes and Langres to Belfort and on via Basel to the Saint Gotthard, and via Reims and Mezières to Longwy.
4. The Orléans, running from Paris to Orléans, and thence serving Bordeaux via Tours, Poitiers and Angoulême, Nantes via Tours and Angers, and Montauban and Toulouse via Vierzon and Limoges.
5. The Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée, connecting Paris with Marseilles via Moret, Laroche, Dijon, Mâcon and Lyons, and with Nîmes via Moret, Nevers and Clermont-Ferrand. It establishes communication between France and Switzerland and Italy via Mâcon and Culoz (for the Mt. Cenis Tunnel) and via Dijon and Pontarlier (for the Simplon), and also has a direct line along the Mediterranean coast from Marseilles to Genoa via Toulon and Nice.
6. The Midi (Southern) has lines radiating from Toulouse to Bordeaux via Agen, to Bayonne via Tarbes and Pau, and to Cette via Carcassonne, Narbonne and Béziers. From Bordeaux there is also a direct line to Bayonne and Irun (for Madrid), and at the other end of the Pyrenees a line leads from Narbonne to Perpignan and Barcelona.
The following table, referring to lines “of general interest,” indicates the development of railways after 1885:
| Year. | Mileage. | Receipts in Thousands of £. |
Expenses in Thousands of £. |
Passengers carried (1000’s). |
Goods carried (1000 Metric Tons). |
| 1885 | 18,650 | 42,324 | 23,508 | 214,451 | 75,192 |
| 1890 | 20,800 | 46,145 | 24,239 | 41,119 | 92,506 |
| 1895 | 22,650 | 50,542 | 27,363 | 348,852 | 100,834 |
| 1900 | 23,818 | 60,674 | 32,966 | 453,193 | 126,830 |
| 1904 | 24,755 | 60,589 | 31,477 | 433,913 | 130,144 |
Narrow gauge and normal gauge railways “of local interest” covered 3905 m. in 1904.
Commerce.
After entering on a régime of free trade in 1860 France gradually reverted towards protection; this system triumphed in the Customs Law of 1892, which imposed more or less considerable duties on imports—a law associated with the name of M. Méline. While raising the taxes both on agricultural products and manufactured goods, this law introduced, between France and all the powers trading with her, relations different from those in the past. It left the government free either to apply to foreign countries the general tariff or to enter into negotiations with them for the application, under certain conditions, of a minimum tariff. The policy of protection was further accentuated by raising the impost on corn from 5 to 7 francs per hectolitre (234 bushels). This system, however, which is opposed by a powerful party, has at various times undergone modifications. On the one hand it became necessary, in face of an inadequate harvest, to suspend in 1898 the application of the law on the import of corn. On the other hand, in order to check the decline of exports and neutralize the harmful effects of a prolonged customs war, a commercial treaty was in 1896 concluded with Switzerland, carrying with it a reduction, in respect of certain articles, of the imposts which had been fixed by the law of 1892. An accord was likewise in 1898 effected with Italy, which since 1886 had been in a state of economic rupture with France, and in July 1899 an accord was concluded with the United States of America. Almost all other countries, moreover, share in the benefit of the minimum tariff, and profit by the modifications it may successively undergo.
Commerce, in Millions of Pounds Sterling.
| General | Special | |||||
| Imports. | Exports. | Total. | Imports. | Exports. | Total. | |
| 1876–1880 | 210.1 | 175.3 | 385.4 | 171.7 | 135.1 | 306.8 |
| 1881–1885 | 224.1 | 177.8 | 401.9 | 183.4 | 135.3 | 318.7 |
| 1886–1890 | 208.2 | 179.4 | 387.6 | 168.8 | 137.6 | 306.4 |
| 1891–1895 | 205.9 | 178.6 | 384.5 | 163.0 | 133.8 | 296.8 |
| 1896–1900 | 237.8 | 201.0 | 438.8 | 171.9 | 150.8 | 322.7 |
| 1901–1905 | 233.3 | 227.5 | 460.8 | 182.8 | 174.7 | 357.5 |
Being in the main a self-supporting country France carries on most of her trade within her own borders, and ranks below Great Britain, Germany and the United States in volume of exterior trade. The latter is subdivided into general commerce, which includes all goods entering or leaving the country, and special commerce which includes imports for home use and exports of home produce. The above table shows the developments of French trade during the years from 1876 to 1905 by means of quinquennial averages. A permanent body (the commission permanente des valeurs) fixes the average prices of the articles in the customs list; this value is estimated at the end of the year in accordance with the variations that have taken place and is applied provisionally to the following year.
| Imports. | Exports. | |||
| Value (Thousands of £). |
Per cent of Total Value. |
Value (Thousands of £). |
Per cent of Total Value. | |
| Articles of Food— | ||||
| 1886–1890 | 58,856 | 34.9 | 30,830 | 22.4 |
| 1891–1895 | 50,774 | 30.9 | 28,287 | 21.1 |
| 1896–1900 | 42,488 | 24.9 | 27,838 | 18.6 |
| 1901–1905 | 33,631 | 18.4 | 28,716 | 16.5 |
| Raw Materials[1] | ||||
| 1886–1890 | 85,778 | 50.8 | 33,848 | 24.6 |
| 1891–1895 | 88,211 | 54.3 | 32,557 | 24.4 |
| 1896–1900 | 101,727 | 59.2 | 40,060 | 26.6 |
| 1901–1905 | 116,580 | 63.8 | 47,385 | 27.1 |
| Manufactured Articles[2] | ||||
| 1886–1890 | 24,125 | 14.3 | 72,917 | 53.0 |
| 1891–1895 | 24,054 | 14.8 | 72,906 | 54.5 |
| 1896–1900 | 27,330 | 15.9 | 82,270 | 54.8 |
| 1901–1905 | 32,554 | 17.8 | 98,582 | 56.4 |
