ractical questions, involving the
interests of labour and of capital, handled under the _ancien regime_ by
practical persons, whether nobles, engineers, or adventurers, who had a
practical interest in settling them wisely, than by theoretical persons,
'philosophers and patriots,' whose only practical interest lay in
'unsettling' them, during the long legislative riot which began in 1789.

The influence of this period upon labour and capital in France is well
illustrated in the records of this company at Anzin.

In 1720, when poor coal, _charbon maigre_, was first found by the
Vicomte Desandrouin and his friends at Fresnes, fifty-five tons of the
mineral were extracted. In 1734, Pierre Mathieu 'struck it rich' at
Anzin, and work began in earnest. By 1744 the yearly output reached
39,685 tons. In 1757, when the Company of Anzin was finally formed, and
the articles of association were signed, the output of the concessions
worked by the company amounted to 102,000 tons. From that time it
increased, not 'by leaps and bounds,' but steadily, till in 1789 it had
reached 290,000 tons. In 1790 it increased again to 310,000 tons. Then
came a decline--gradual at first, but as things grew worse at Paris,
sharp and sudden. The output fell to 291,000 tons in 1791--fell again to
275,500 tons in 1792. With the murder of the king, and the final crash
of law and order throughout France, in 1793 the output dropped suddenly
to 80,000 tons, or less by 20 per cent. than it had been in 1756, the
year before the company was finally formed. In the next year, 1794, it
dropped again to 65,000 tons, a point below that of the production in
1752, four years before the formation of the company, when the lords of
the land were in the thick of their legal battle with the Vicomte
Desandrouin and the concessionnaires.

Things began gradually to look better as it became more and more clear
that the Republic could not last, and with the establishment of the
Consulate and the Empire they grew better still. But it was not till
1813 that the output approached the figure reached in the last year of
the monarchy, 1790.

With the disasters of 1814 and 1815, of course, it fell again; but
within two years after the restoration of the monarchy, in 1818, the
output reached and passed the highest point attained before the
Revolution, and stood at 334,482 tons. In 1830 the output had reached
508,708 tons, but the revolution of that year threw it back again, in
1831