Small Business and Social Mobility in France
Résumé
Almost a century ago Engels claimed that the growth of large-scale capitalist production would eliminate small-scale independent ownership in agriculture, craft production and commerce as surely 'as a train runs over a pushcart' (1970, p. 472). Today, however, the prediction remains unfulfilled. In France, for example, 16 per cent of the economically active population are classifîed as 'independent'. [First paragraph]