It would have been very interesting to compare the present distribution of industries in France with what it was previously. But M. Lucien March tells us that “_no statistics previous to 1896 have given us a knowledge of that distribution_.” Still, an inquest made between 1840 and 1845, and which M. March considers “very complete for the more important establishments which employed more than fifty workmen,” was worked out by him, and he found that such establishments numbered 3,300 in 1840; in 1896 they had already attained the number of 7,400, and they occupied more than fifty-five per cent. of all the workpeople employed in industry. As to the establishments which employed more than 500 persons and which numbered 133 in 1840 (six per cent. of all the workpeople), they attained the number of 444 in 1896, and sixteen per cent. of all the workpeople were employed in them. The conclusion to be drawn from these facts is thus worded by M. March: “To sum up, during the last fifty years a notable concentration of the factories took place in the big establishments; but the just-mentioned results, supported by the statistics of the patents, permit us to recognise that _this concentration does not prevent the maintenance of a mass of small enterprises, the average sizes of which increase but very slowly_.” This last is, in fact, what we have just seen from our brief sketch for the United Kingdom, and we can only ask ourselves whether--such being the facts--the word “concentration” is well chosen. What we see in reality is, the appearance, _in some branches of industry_, of a certain number of large establishments, and especially of middle-sized factories. But this does not prevent in the least that very great numbers of small factories should continue to exist, either in other branches, or in the very same branches where large factories have appeared (the textiles, work in metal), or in branches connected with the main ones, which take their origin in these main ones, as the industry of clothing takes its origin from that of the textiles. This is the only conclusion which a serious analysis permits us to draw from the facts brought to light by the census of 1896 and subsequent observations. As to the large deductions about “concentration” made by certain economists, they are mere _hypotheses_--useful, of course, for stimulating research, but becoming quite noxious when they are represented _as economical laws_, when in reality they are not confirmed at all by the testimony of carefully observed facts. FOOTNOTES: [129] This is why the German economists find such difficulties in delimiting the proper domain of the domestic trades (_Hausindustrie_), and now identify this word with _Verlagssystem_, which means “working either directly or through the intermediary of a middleman employer (or buyer) for a dealer or employer, who pays the small producer for the goods he has produced, before they have reached the consumer.”