Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Languedoc
- 3 Clermont-de-Lodève
- 4 Clermont during the seventeenth century
- 5 Colbert, Languedoc, Saptes, Villenouvette
- 6 Villenouvette succeeds
- 7 Villenouvette and Clermont
- 8 The first thirty years, 1695–1724
- 9 The second thirty years, 1725–54
- 10 A change in policy and its consequences, 1754–9
- 11 The last thirty years, 1760–89, ‘The Age of Iron’: an explanation
- 12 Conclusion: the end of the cycle
- Appendix 1 Languedoc's intendants, 1673–1789
- Appendix 2 Clermont's inspectors, 1727–91
- Appendix 3 Glossary of cloth types, textile and administrative terms, weights and measures
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - The first thirty years, 1695–1724
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Languedoc
- 3 Clermont-de-Lodève
- 4 Clermont during the seventeenth century
- 5 Colbert, Languedoc, Saptes, Villenouvette
- 6 Villenouvette succeeds
- 7 Villenouvette and Clermont
- 8 The first thirty years, 1695–1724
- 9 The second thirty years, 1725–54
- 10 A change in policy and its consequences, 1754–9
- 11 The last thirty years, 1760–89, ‘The Age of Iron’: an explanation
- 12 Conclusion: the end of the cycle
- Appendix 1 Languedoc's intendants, 1673–1789
- Appendix 2 Clermont's inspectors, 1727–91
- Appendix 3 Glossary of cloth types, textile and administrative terms, weights and measures
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
I believe that, for each period into which our economic history may be divided, there is a distinct and separate class of capitalists. In other words, the group of capitalists of a given epoch does not spring from the capitalist group of the preceding epoch. At every change in economic organization we find a breach of continuity. It is as if the capitalists who have up to that time been active, recognize that they are incapable of adapting themselves … In their place arise new men, courageous and enterprising who boldly permit themselves to be driven by the wind actually blowing and who know how to turn their sails to take advantage of it.
(H. Pirenne, ‘The stages in the social history of capitalism’, American Historical Review 19(1914), 494–5)Few of the men who entered the trade rich were successful. They trusted too much to others, too little to themselves.
(P. Gaskell, cited by Pirenne, p. 514, n. 31)That the French trade with the Levant should have expanded rapidly from the 1690s is no cause for surprise. The circumstances which had led both to the extent of its decline, and to the strength of the English and Dutch involvement in the Mediterranean, were of a temporary rather than a permanent nature.
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- Clermont de Lodève 1633–1789Fluctuations in the Prosperity of a Languedocian Cloth-making Town, pp. 249 - 300Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1982
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