In 1873, out of a total population of 1,851,800 inhabiting Paris, 816,040 (404,408 men and 411,632 women) were living on industry, and out of them only 293,691 were connected with the factories (grande industrie), while 522,349 were living on the petty trades (petite indu8trie) — Maxime du Camp, Paris et ses Organes, vol. vi. It is interesting to note that of late the small workshops where some of the finest work is made in metals, wood, and so on, have begun to be scattered round Paris.

Everyone knows what an immense progress has been realised since by the motors used in motor cars and aeroplanes, and what is achieved now by the transmission of electrical power. But I leave these lines as they were written, as a testimony of the way in which the conquest of air began, and of the part taken in it by the French small industry.

The remarks of Prof. Issaieff — a thorough investigator of petty trades in Russia, Germany and France — (see Works of the Commission for the Study of Petty Trades in Russia(Russian), St. Petersburg, 1879–1887 vol. i.) were for me a valuable guide when I prepared the first edition of this book. Since that time the two industrial censuses of 1895 and 1907 have yielded such a valuable material, that there are quite a number of German works which came to the same conclusions. I shall mention them further on.

See K. Buecher’s Preface to the Untersuchungen über die Lage des Handwerks in Deutschland, vol. iv.