Editing French Directory (section)

=== Industry ===
The continual wars and fiscal crises greatly limited the expansion of French industry. The [[Industrial Revolution]] had only just begun in France. Production during the Directory had fallen below what it was in 1789. The number of workers in the [[Silk|silk industry]] in [[Lyon]] had dropped from 12,000 before 1787 to 6,500. The [[Cotton|cotton textile industry]] was more successful due to the embargo against British products caused by the war. New factories and new technologies, such as mechanical [[loom]]s, were introduced in [[Normandy]] and in [[Alsace]]. However, the technologies were still primitive; the [[steam engine]] had not yet arrived in French factories. The [[chemical industry]] was also advancing rapidly during the Directory; the chemist and entrepreneur [[Jean Antoine Claude Chaptal]] built a chemical factory in [[Montpellier]], which he soon moved to [[16th arrondissement of Paris|Chaillot]], a village west of Paris. The most effective promoter of French industry was [[François de Neufchâteau]], who was Minister of the Interior before becoming a Director in 1797. He planned a new canal system, began work on a new road across the [[Pyrenees]], and organized the first national industrial exposition in Paris, which opened with great success in October 1798. Once he became Consul, Bonaparte copied the idea of the industrial exposition. Despite this bright spot, French industry was primitive: without steam power, most factories in France depended upon water power, and the [[Metalworking|metallurgy industry]] still melted iron with wood fires, not oil.{{sfn|Lefebvre|1977|pp=528–531}}