Concentration dans l'industrie minière et construction de l'espace régional : le cas du Nord-Pas-de-Calais de 1850 à 1914

The relations between the capital holders of the Lille area and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais coal-mining basin lie at the heart of the construction of the region's economic space. After 1850, the « grandes familles » of the Lille region (textile, sugar, trade) lay hands on the essential part of the « charbonnages du Pas-de-Calais » (in particular the Lens coal-mines, a jewel in the nation's crown), then extend their participation network to the Nord basin in the early XXth century. They create a hybrid capitalism which cross-breeds the tools of family capitalism with those of anonymous capitalism, and combines locking of capital with growth. On top of this, the perpetuation of their collective control is guaranteed by the integration of the coal-mining industry to the system of regional banks, which the families control, and by their influence on the Lille stock exchange, which specializes in these assets. This system is hardly weakened, after 1900, by the increase in share-ownership or by the registration on the Paris stock exchange. All things considered, the question whether coal extraction benefited either territory remains open, at least as much as it benefited the « grandes familles » for whom it constituted, over nearly a century, both a booty and a guaranteed income.