The decline of French trade power during the first globalization (1850-1913)

This article offers an exhaustive quantitative analysis of the French foreign trade during the second part of the 19th century (1850-1913). It uses both geographical and sectoral dimension. Products are analyzed at a highly disaggregated level (corresponding to the SITC rev.3). We have studied imports from 41 countries and exports to 63 destinations.\r\nThe article shows that France has faced problems to benefit from the global economic growth induced by the first globalization from the end of the 1870’s because of a weakness in geographical and sectoral diversification. Indeed, France withdraws on close markets and is not able to take advantage of emerging countries’ economic development.