Private networks and economic institutions in 19th century Paris: an unstable complementarity

Claire Lemercier (1)

1 CSO - Centre de sociologie des organisations (Sciences Po, CNRS)

19th-century France has often been described either as totally centralized, with an already strong State, or as lacking any kind of economic regulation after the abolition of guilds and quality norms during the Revolution. During the last 15 years, however, historians have demonstrated the influence and efficiency of various meso-level "institutions" (in the loose sense of the word), including family firms as well as notaries, conseils de prud'hommes (arbitration boards between employers and employees) and Chambers of Commerce (Hirsch, 1991, Plessis (ed.), 1993, Hirsch and Minard, 1998, Hoffman et al., 2000, Cottereau, 2002). My own PhD thesis about the Paris Chamber of Commerce in the 19th century (Lemercier, 2003) and my current research dealing with a broader system of meso-level economic institutions aim at going one step further (...).

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; History

Claire Lemercier. Private networks and economic institutions in 19th century Paris: an unstable complementarity. Xe Simposio de historia economica "Network analysis in economic history", organisé par le Comité pour l'histoire économique et financière de la France (CHEFF), Jan 2005, Bellaterra (Barcelone), Spain. ⟨hal-01059582⟩