Editing Georges-Eugène Haussmann (section)

===Financing the reconstruction of Paris===
The reconstruction of the centre of Paris was the largest such public works project ever undertaken in Europe. Never before had a major city been completely rebuilt when it was still intact. London, Rome, Copenhagen and Lisbon had been rebuilt after major fires or earthquakes. Napoleon III began his grand projects when he was prince-president, when the government had a full treasury.  In his 1851 plan, he proposed to extend the Rue de Rivoli to connect the Louvre with the Hôtel de Ville, to build a wide new avenue, the [[Boulevard de Strasbourg]] on a north-south axis, and to complete the central produce market, [[Les Halles]], long unfinished.<ref>Maneglier, Hervé, ''Paris Impérial'', p. 254.</ref>  

He approached the Parliament and received authorisation to borrow fifty million francs.  The Emperor's ambitions were much greater. He wanted to finish the building of the Louvre and to create an enormous new park, the [[Bois de Boulogne]], to the west of Paris. His prefect of the Seine, Berger, protested that Paris did not have the money.  At this point, Napoleon dismissed Berger and hired Haussmann, and Haussmann looked for a better way to finance his projects.<ref>Maneglier, Hervé, ''Paris Impérial'', p. 254.</ref>

Napoleon III was especially anxious to finish the extension of rue de Rivoli from the Louvre to the Hotel de Ville, before the opening of the [[Exposition Universelle (1855)|Paris Universal Exposition of 1855]].  Napoleon III demanded the construction of a new luxury hotel, to house his imperial guests during the Exposition. Napoleon III and Haussmann turned for funding to two Parisian bankers, the [[Pereire brothers]], who had created a bank called [[Crédit Mobilier]].<ref name="Moncan, Patrice pp. 48-53">de Moncan, Patrice, ''Le Paris d'Haussmann'', pp. 48–53</ref>

In December 1854, with no time to lose before the opening of the exposition, the Pereire brothers created a new company to construct the street and the hotel.  They sold 240,000 shares for one hundred francs each, with 106,665 shares purchased by Credit Mobilier, 42,220 by the Pereire brothers, and the rest to private investors. In 1850 and 1851, at Napoleon's request, new laws were passed making it easier for Paris to expropriate private land for public purposes. They allowed the city to expropriate, in the public interest, land for new streets, and all of the building sites on both sides of the new streets, an asset of enormous value.<ref name="Moncan, Patrice pp. 48-53"/>

The government expropriated the land, with buildings, that it needed to build the new street and hotel. The owners were paid a price set by an arbitration board. The government then sold the land and buildings to the company established by the Pereire brothers, which tore down the old buildings, constructed a new street, sidewalks and a new square, the Place du Palais Royale. They built new buildings along the new street, and sold them or rented them to new owners.<ref name="Moncan, Patrice pp. 48-53"/>

They constructed the Hotel du Louvre, one of the largest buildings in the city and one of the first modern luxury hotels in Paris.  The company also built rows of luxury shops under a covered arcade along the [[Rue de Rivoli]] and around the hotel, which they rented to shopkeepers. Construction began immediately. Three thousand workers laboured both day and night for two years to complete the street and hotel, which were finished in time for the Exposition.<ref name="Moncan, Patrice pp. 48-53"/>
 
This was the basic method adopted by Haussmann to finance the reconstruction of Paris. The government expropriated the old buildings, compensated the owners, and private companies built the new streets and buildings, following the standards set by Haussmann.  The private companies were often paid for the construction work they did, with city land, which they could then develop and sell.<ref name="Moncan, Patrice pp. 48-53"/>
     
In 1854, the Parliament approved another loan of sixty million francs, but Haussmann needed far more for his future projects.  On 14 November 1858, Napoleon and Haussmann created the ''Caisse des travaux de la Ville'', specifically to finance the reconstruction projects.  It borrowed money at a higher rate of interest than regular city bonds, and used the money to pay private companies, such as that of Pereire brothers, to rebuild the city. "It was a great relief for the city's finances,"  Haussmann wrote later in his ''Memoirs'' "which allowed the city to carry out several grand operations at the same time, with rapid execution, in short more economically."<ref>Memoirs of Haussmann, cited in Maneglier, ''Paris Impérial'', p. 257.</ref> It functioned entirely independently of the parliament, which greatly irritated the members of parliament.<ref>Maneglier, Hervé, ''Paris Impérial'', p. 256–257</ref>