Wallonia, Second industrial Power of the World (1790-1910)

15 August, 2009

Jean-Pierre Rioux quoted the following table in his book La révolution industrielle. The table is based on several levels of development (i.e. consumption of cotton in the rough state, of cast-iron, cast-steel, coal, the development of the railway network 1). This table was firstly drawn by Paul Bairoch one of the most important economist after the World War II 2

Thus, this table is not based on absolute figures (or is not pointing out the absolute ranks), but the hierarchy of the industrial powers is based on their levels of development. And if Wallonia is not pointed out on this table, Wallonia may be used instead of Belgium.

Rank	1810	1840	1860	1880	1900	1910
1	United Kingdom	United Kingdom	United Kingdom	United Kingdom	United States	United States
2	Belgium	Belgium	Belgium	Belgium	United Kingdom	United Kingdom
3	United States	United States	United States	United States	Belgium	Belgium
4	France	Switzerland	Switzerland	Switzerland	Switzerland	Germany
5	Switzerland	France	France	Germany	Germany	Switzerland
6	Germany	Germany	Germany	France	France	France
7	Sweden	Sweden	Sweden	Sweden	Sweden	Sweden
8	Spain	Spain	Spain	Spain	Spain	Spain
9	Italy	Italy	Italy	Italy	Italy	Italy
10	Russia	Russia	Russia	Russia	Russia	Russia
11	Japan	Japan	Japan	Japan	Japan	Japan

According to many authors, the word Belgium may be exchanged for Wallonia as for instance Herbert Lüthy quoted by Maurice Besnard: Belgium and its Walloon part was « the first country to become an industrial country after England ». Herbert Lüthy did not agree with the theory of Max Weber on the link between capitalism and Protestantism and, on the contrary, underlined the fact that Wallonia was a catholic country 3 Hervé Hasquin thought that « the development of the Walloon industrial regions contributed to make of Belgium one of the main industrial powers in Europa, if not in the world... » 4 Philippe Raxhon wrote about the period after 1830,: « It was not propaganda but reality that the Walloon regions were becoming the second industrial power all over the world after England » 5 Marc Reynebau said the same thing 6 Michel De Coster, Professor at the University of Liège wrote also: « The historians and the economists say that Belgium was the second industrial power of the world, in proportion to its population and its territory (...) But this rank is the one of Wallonia where were concentrated the coal-mines, the blast furnaces, the iron and zinc factories, the wool industry, the glass industry, the weapons industry... » 7 . The Professor is pointing out this possible confusion (Belgium/Wallonia), as a good example of the difficulties of the Walloon identity. There are many other references about that: « The Walloon iron and steel industry came to be regarded as an example of the radical evolution of industrial expansion. Thanks to coal (the French word “houille” was coined in Wallonia), the region geared up to become the second industrial power in the world after England. In fact, despite the protectionism of neighbouring states, in 1833 Belgian industry boasted 5 times more steam machines per inhabitant than a country such as France. It also exported them to over 25 countries. » 8 « The sole industrial centre outside the collieries and blast furnaces of Walloon was the old cloth making town of Ghent. » 9

1. Jean-Pierre Rioux, La révolution industrielle, Seuil, Paris, 1989, Collection 'Points ISBN
2. P. BAIROCH, Niveaux de développement économique de 1810 à 1910, dans Annales, Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations, novembre-décembre 1965, p. 1110.
3. Philipppe Besnard, Protestantisme et capîtalisme. la controverse post-wébérienne. Armand Collin, Paris, 1970, pages 27-31 Philippe Destatte wrote that Wallonia was « the second industrial power of the world, in proportion to its population and its territory » Philippe Desttate, L'identité wallonne, Institut Destrée, Charleroi, 1997, pages 49-50.
4. Hervé Hasquin, La Wallonie, son histoire, Pire, Bruxelles, 1999, page 172 .
5. Philippe Raxhon, Le siècle des forges ou la Wallonie dans le creuset belge (1794-1914), in B.Demoulin and JL Kupper (editors), Histoire de la Wallonie, Privat, Toulouse, 2004, pages 233-276., p. 246.
6. Histoire belge, 1830-2005, Translated from the Dutch by S.Delsart, Racine, Bruxelles, 2005, p. 48
7. Michel De Coster, Les enjeux des conflits linguistiques, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2007.
8. <a href=AWEW
9. European Route of Industrial Heritage

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Wallonia, Second industrial Power of the World (1790-1910)

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