Contenu du sommaire : Histoire économique. La France de l'entre-deux-guerres

favour of the fall enabled them to keep up tins davantage. In 1925 the reversal that occurred in the world price conjuncture showed a hastening fall of the franc. In 1926 all the businessmen — or almost — then met in the party in favour of stabilisation.

The « off-the record » origins of the 1929 crisis in France The French crisi» of 1929 is often anahjsed as a late crisis breaking ont in 1931. Now, observing all the conjoncture's indicators, it is possible to establish that the « turning point n is situated, for the majority of industriel sectors, at the end of 1927. Far from being a repercussion of the American crisis, the crisis of the French capitalism was born from the contradictions of the économic growth in the 1920's, contradictions between the formidable take off of productivity and the stagnation of effective demahd. The 1929 crisis would thus mark the divorce between two worlds, the world of twentieth century dominated by the « capita-listic » revolution and the world of nineteenth centurty still dominated by the « iron law » of wages and the absence of mass consumption.

How a french company copes with exportation Pont-à-Mousson : 1860-1940 Productivity is the basic concept of Pont-à-Mousson's, strategy, but exports make it possible because they make up for the narrowness and irregularity of the domestic waterpipe market. Exports entail economies of scale which enable Pont-à-Mousson to capture the French market. Yet, because of the competitiveness of the European foundries, Pont-à-Mousson s markets are becoming isolated. Ruled since 1905 through an anti-competition agreement the domestic market is aimed at subsidizing sales abroad. After the war the balance of the domestic market is called into question. Exports now tend to back up the French market. The conclusion in 1929 of internal and external agreements highlights that both sales sectors are homogeneous and equally important with regard to the profitability of the company. The world crisis threatens to close down the foreign markets. Exporting plant finally appears necessary in order to save a certain stream of exports.

State interference and rearmament in France 1935-1939 Robert Frankenstein The considerable increase of State interference in French economy during the' 30s came less from the political will to find a solution to the crisis than from the necessity to re-arm imposed from the outside by the hitlerian threat. As a matter of fact, the burden of the military commitment on public expenditure, on national income and on industrial production was never so heavy. In view of the evident failure of private initiative, the State had to turn itself into manufacturer and banker ; this was achieved by the Front Populaire in 1936. After its fall, the reversed political trend in the following wage struggle during 1938-1939 favoured the employer s retaliation and the return of the profit margin. This was the price paid for the industrialists' co-operation to National Defence. In this contradictory process, the State gave itself a new industrial and bank interférence capacity and a new social arbitrage pcnver. The State's position came out of this rearmament period assuredly transformed on the eve of the second World War.