La maison, la fabrique et la ville. L'industrie du drap fin en France (XVe-XVIIIe siècles)

[fre] Résumé On connaît le dynamisme de l'industrie du drap fin, entre le milieu du XVIIe siècle et la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Elle était, avant la crise qui la ruina passagèrement vers 1630, déjà prospère au XVIe siècle. Mais alors que l'essor du XVIIIe siècle se focalisa sur des villes moyennes telles que Sedan, Elbeuf et bouviers, ce sont principalement Rouen et Paris qui furent concernées au XVIe siècle. La cherté de ces draps fins et la complexité de leur fabrication expliquent que celle-ci soit généralement restée une activité urbaine, souvent concentrée en manufacture, bien que le filage soit resté dispersé à la campagne. Dans une ville comme Louviers, la prolifération des manufactures qui envahirent au XVIIIe siècle tout le quartier central n'a pas pour autant modifié profondément l'ancien paysage urbain. Certes, le travail drapier était dans l'ensemble plus éparpillé au XVIe siècle, mais, à Paris, les teintureries du quartier des Gobelins étaient déjà de grandes manufactures. L'archéologie industrielle permet de restituer cette organisation spatiale et son impact sur la morphologie urbaine. [eng] Abstract The prosperity of the French fine broad-cloth industry between the mid seventeenth century and the late eighteenth century is well known. Prior to the brief crisis of the 1630s, however, it was already a dynamic industrial sector during the sixteenth century. The eighteenth-century industry developed particularly in such medium-sized towns as Sedan, Elbeuf and Louviers ; during the sixteenth century the main centres were Rouen and Paris. The high cost of this fine cloth, and the complexity of the operations necessary for its production explain why this was primarily an urban industry and one which was often concentrated in large-scale manufactories, even if the spinning operations were still put out to domestic spinners in the surrounding villages and countryside. In a town like Louviers, a large number of factories were opened during the eighteenth century, but these did not fundamentally change the existing urban landscape. During the sixteenth century, the cloth industry was even less concentrated, but the dye works of the Gobelins neighbourhood in Paris were already large-scale establishments. Industrial archaeology helps identify the way the industry was organised spatially and to evaluate its impact on urban forms.