The class of factories employing from 101 to 500 workmen contain 3,145 establishments (616,000 workmen and other employees). But that of from 501–1,000 employees per factory has only 295 establishments, and a total of only 195,000 operatives. Taken together, these two classes contain less that 1 per cent. Of all the establishments (six per 1,000), and 26 per cent. of all the workmen.
Finally, the number of factories and works having more than a thousand workmen and employees each is very small. It is only 149. Out of them, 108 have from 1,001 to 2,000 workmen, twenty-one have from 2,001 to 5,000, and ten only have more than 5,000 workmen. These 149 very big factories and works give occupation to 313,000 persons only, out of more than 3,000,000 — that is, only 10 per cent. of all the industrial workers.
It thus appears that more than 99 per cent. of al the industrial establishments in France — that is, 571,940 our of 575,529 — have less than 100 workmen each. They give occupation to 200,000,000 persons, and represent an army of 571,940 employers. More than that. The immense majority of that number (568,075 employers) belong to the category of those who employ less that fifty workmen each. And I do not yet count in their number 520,000 employers and artisans who work for themselves, or with the aid of a member of the family
It is evident that in France, as everywhere, the petty trades represent a very important factor of the industrial life. Economists have been too hasty in celebrating their death. And this conclusion becomes still more apparent when one analyses the different industries separately, taking advantage of the tables given in Reultats Statistiques. A very important face appears from this analysis — namely, that there are only three branches of industry in which one can speak of a strong “concentration” — the mines, metallurgy, and the State’s industries, to which one may add the textiles and ironmongery, but always remembering that in these two