The Arcades Project - Operi

[Ecole Poly technique ]
On commerce: "'If competition between merchants, ... or any other matter, pre­
vents them from sclling their wares in timely fashio11, then the individual merchant
is forced . . . to suspend business and east the problem back ont.o the pro-
ducers . ... This is why we cannot distinguish between commercial and industrial
crises, so dependent is industry on intermediaries . ... A fearsome audit is conducted
on all assets in circulation, and an enormous quantity of them are declared
worthless . ... The times when commercial assets are subjected to audit arc called
crises." Eugene Buret, De ia Misere des classes
France (Paris , 1840), vol. 2, pp. 211, 213.
laborieuses en Angleterre et en
[r 1,1 J
"'In 1860, having long slumbered in the arms of protectionism, France abruptly
awakened 'on the pillow of free trade.' Exercising the right conferred on him by
the constitution of 1852, Napoleon III had bypassed parliament and negotiated to
open our borders to products from other nations, at the same time opening several
foreign markets to our entrepreneurs . ... Long years of prosperity had made it
possible for our industrial forces ... to wage a global struggle." Henry 'Fougere,
Les DeUigations ouvrieres
(Montlu\,on, 1905), p. 28.
altx expositions nniverselles SOltS Ie Second Empire
[rl,2]
FOUlHling of the Ecole Polyte(hnique:l ("The Terror within, invaders at the bordel's
. .. ; the country in ruins, disorganized, able neither to acquire the saltpeter
needed [or gunpowder nor to run the factories needed for manufacturing arms
(since nearly all these factories were in the hands of insurgents)-such were the
circumstances in which deliberations were held to found the new institution . ...
'Everything that genius, lahor, and concerted action were capable of,' as Biot. had
put it, 'was now called up, so that France alone could sustain itself against all of'
Europe . .. for the duration of the war, however long and. t.errible it might prove to
be' . . . . Characteristic of the Ecole Polytedmique . . . was the coexistence of
purely t . heoretic st.udies with a series of vocational courses geared to civil engineering,
architecture, fortifications, mining, and even naval constructi.ons . ... Napoleon
. .. made residence in the barracks obligatory for students . ... Then came
the events of . .. 1815, aftcr which .. , one no longer conccaled the hope of seeing
the Ecole recruit more students from aristoeratie families . ... The institution t . hus