<P> The Paris Bourse or stock exchange emerged as a key market for investors to buy and sell securities . It was primarily a forward market, and it pioneered in creating a mutual guarantee fund so that failures of major brokers would not escalate into a devastating financial crisis . Speculators in the 1880s who disliked the control of the Bourse used a less regulated alternative the Coulisse . However it collapsed in the face of the simultaneous failure of a number of its brokers in 1895--1896 . The Bourse secured legislation that guaranteed its monopoly, increased control of the curb market, and reduced the risk of another financial panic . </P> <P> France in 1815 was overwhelmingly a land of peasant farms, with some handicraft industry . Paris, and the other much smaller urban centers, had little industry . On the onset of the nineteenth century, GDP per capita in France was lower than in Great Britain and the Netherlands . This was probably due to higher transaction costs, which were mainly caused by inefficient property rights and a transportation system geared more to military needs than to economic growth . </P> <P> Historians are reluctant to use the term "Industrial Revolution" for France because the slow pace seems an exaggeration for France as a whole . The Industrial Revolution was well underway in Britain when the Napoleonic wars ended, and soon spread to Belgium and, to a lesser extent to northeastern France . The remainder remained little changed . The growth regions developed industry, based largely on textiles, as well as some mining . The pace of industrialization was far below Britain, Germany, the United States and Japan . The persecution of the Protestant Huguenots after 1685 led to a large - scale flight of entrepreneurial and mechanical talents that proved hard to replace . Instead French business practices were characterized by tightly held family firms, which emphasized traditionalism and paternalism . These characteristics supported a strong banking system, and made Paris a world center for luxury craftsmanship, but it slowed the building of large factories and giant corporations . Napoleon had promoted engineering education, and it paid off in the availability of well - trained graduates who developed the transportation system, especially the railways after 1840 . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> Au Bon Marché </Td> </Tr> </Table>

How did trade help create a middle class