La force d’une illusion. La Monnaie de Lille et l’autonomie de la place lilloise au premier xix e siècle

The Mint of Lille is hybrid, both a public institution under the Ministry of Finance's supervision and a private company (trading of precious metals, bank, industry). It is the heart of the Lille money market : it pumps the bills in (especially those payable in Paris) and pumps coins out. Managed by Alexandre Beaussier (1816-1840), it strengthens its rank of the first Mint of the French provinces and even becomes the first one of France, under Charles Diérickx (1840-1846). Thanks to its border location, it gets silver coins and metal from Belgium and is an intermediary between markets of north-western Europe (Brussels, Antwerp, London, Hamburg) and Paris. Besides, it is integrated in the « Rothschild system », which contributes to its power but also to its death : it closes down in 1846, victim of the concentration of the monetary striking in the Mint of Paris, managed by Dierickx since 1845. Fiercely defended by the local business firms, because it is considered as essential to the financial autonomy of Lille (it allows not to resort to the Bank of France), its production is however too irregular and less and less sufficient to satisfy the growing financial needs of industrialization. After 1846, the Bank of Lille, a bank of issue created in 1836 by Beaussier, does not succeed in regulating the money market either. It becomes in 1848 a branch of the Bank of France, which leads to the emergence of a modern banking system.