Search

The article presents a comparative study of the development and influence of large urban populations on social structure and politics in Birmingham, England and Lyons, France. Birmingham and Lyons were two of the most important towns in Europe in the period between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Revolutions of 1848. Before discussing the obvious differences, it is important to stress three points which the towns had in common: Neither town was distinguished by big enterprises. The second point that the towns had in common has been less frequently-stressed. The workers in Birmingham and Lyons were relatively well off--when in employments-compared with workers in other parts of England and France. The voice of the Birmingham and Lyons working classes was more than the voice of hunger. It was frequently, however, the voice of unemployment. The important difference between the social structure of Birmingham and Lyons should be stressed. While the social structure of Birmingham made for middle-class cooperation with the working clashes, the social structure of Lyons made for social antagonism and conflict. While the tendency in Birmingham was to try to build up political organizations based on cooperation between the classes, the tendency in Lyons was for fabricants, chefs d'ateliers and compagnons to meet and organize separately.

Compares the practices by followers of Catholic and Protestant in Nimes and Lyon, France and considers the role of their rivalry under the Edict of Nantes in the development of attitudes and practices in poor relief. Motives of French municipal authorities in the sixteenth century in establishing public distribution of poor relief; Information on the two associations in Lyon; Explanation on the Reformed Church of Lyon.

This article discusses the place of the Company of the Griffarins, a workers' coalition of the printers' journeymen of Lyons, France, in the history of the labor movement. The printing industry in Lyons was dominated by the great merchant-publishers, who financed the printing of books without owning a shop or presses, and who then marketed the books throughout Europe. The Company of the Griffarins was compared to the highly developed French compagnonnages of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Finally, the development of trade unions in the English printing industry was compared to the French printing industry.