Paul de Rousiers

Marie Pierre Paul de Rousiers was born in Rochechouart, Haute-Vienne, on 16 January 1857.[1] His father, a graduate of the naval school, was an officer in the navy and owned an agricultural estate in Rhus, in the commune of Saint-Maurice-des-Lions, where Les Rousiers had lived for several generations. This is where Paul spent his childhood. After the death of his father in 1865 he entered the Jesuit college in Poitiers and obtained his baccalauréat in 1872. He then prepared for the examination for admission to the Naval School in Brest, which he failed twice.[2]

De Rousiers turned to the study of the law at the Catholic Institute in Paris. His professor of political economy, Claudio Jannet, was a disciple of Pierre Guillaume Frédéric le Play, head of the Société d'économie sociale and the Unions de la paix sociale. De Rousiers met Le Play through Edmond Demolins, through whom he joined the group that met in Le Play's salon every Monday.[2] De Rousiers pursued his study of law and obtained a license, and also worked in 1877 as chief of staff to the prefect of Aveyron, while continuing to study social science. His theoretical apprenticeship ended with the publication in 1881 of the Programme de gouvernement et d'organisation sociale d'après l'observation comparée des divers peuples, with a preface by Le Play. This was a collective work by the small group led by Demolins.[3]

Paul de Rousiers married Camille d'Artigues in May 1879. He joined the Société d'économie sociale and the Unions de la paix sociale, and from this time was committed to development of social science. From 1883 he became a regular contributor to Réforme sociale, a bi-monthly journal edited by Demolins.[3] The term "social geography" was first used both by geographer Élisée Reclus and by sociologists of the Le Play School, perhaps independently. The first proven occurrence of the term derives from a review of Reclus' Nouvelle géographie universelle from 1884, written by Paul de Rousiers, a member of the Le Play School. In 1885, three years after the death of Le Play, Henri de Tourville and Demolins split from the movement and founded a new journal, Science sociale. They brought with them a few adherents including de Rousiers and Robert Pinot (1862–1926), future director of the Musée social and secretary-general of the Comité des forges. De Rousiers continued to work within this small group, which functioned as a true research team.[4]

The publisher Firmin-Didot provided funding for Paul de Rousiers to visit the United States from March to June 1890. He wrote of what he found in La Vie américaine (1892), an analysis of American society based on deliberate investigation including visits to factories and farms, observations of life in the cities and countryside, and interviews with representatives of different social groups including owners, workers, politicians, officials and professionals. His goal was to understand the sociological forces behind the growing economic power of the US, which was starting to cause serious concern in Europe.[5] De Rousiers interviewed George Pullman, who exerted huge control over the workforce who lived in his Pullman City.[6] He wrote of Pullman's manufacturing complex, "Everything is done in order and with precision. One feels that some brain of superior intelligence, backed by a long technical experience, has thought out every possible detail."[7] The book appeared in English in 1892, translated by the geographer Andrew John Herbertson.[5]

Frontispiece of La question ouvrière en Angleterre (1895)

In 1893 de Rousiers made two visits of four months to England and Scotland, then to Belfast, where in September 1893 he participated in a trade union congress.[8] As in America, he made many observations, particularly in Birmingham, London and the Scottish Lothians, visited factories and mines, and interviewed workers, industrialists, union leaders and intellectuals such as Sidney Webb. [9] Based his investigation he produced a major work on La question ouvrière en Angleterre (1895), translated as The Labour Question in Britain (1896).[10]

Le Trade-unionisme en Angleterre (1896) was a collective work that Paul de Rousiers organized at the request of the directors of the Musée social.[11] Robert Pinot, the effective leader of the Musée and a close friend of de Rousiers, had placed him at the head of a team of four pupils of the École Libre des Sciences Politiques who conducted inquiries in September and October 1895.[12] The Musée social supported a second study on the same subject in the US from July to December 1896. De Rousiers led a team that included F. de Carbonnel, Pierre Claudio-Jannet and Louis Vigouroux. This resulted in several articles and two books, La Concentration des forces ouvrières dans l'Amérique du Nord by Vigouroux and Les Industries monopolisées (trusts) aux Etats-Unis by de Rousiers.[12]

Frontispiece of Les Syndicats industriels de producteurs en France et à l'étranger (1901)

After his second visit to the United States Paul de Rousier's reputation was established. He was invited to contribute to reviews such as the Revue politique et parlementaire, Revue de Paris, Revue bleue and Annales des sciences politiques, while continuing to contribute to la Science sociale.[13] In 1899 and 1900 he studied the German cartels in two journeys through the Ruhr, the plains of Saxony and Silesia. He then investigated the Comptoir métallurgique de Longwy, formed in 1877 by the main enterprises of Lorraine to coordinate purchase and allocation of pig iron. Based on this research he published Les Syndicats industriels de producteurs en France et à l'étranger (1901).[14] His last important work about industrial relations was Hambourg et l'Allemagne contemporaine (1902).[15]

Édouard Gruner, mining engineer and vice-president of the Comité central des houillères, was an active member of the Société d'économie sociale and secretary-treasurer of the Musée social. He had already introduced Robert Pinot to the metallurgy manufacturers who were looking for a leader for their trade association, and did the same for de Rousiers by putting him in contact with the shipbuilders, who wanted to found a professional association. De Rousiers was engaged in 1903 by André Lebon, former minister of Commerce and then of the Colonies, and first president of the Comité central des armateurs de France (CCAF: Central Committee of French Shipowners).[16] De Rousiers was secretary-general and vice-president-delegate of the committee.[17] He now had stable employment that allowed him to rebuild his family home in Rhus and provide education to his five children. The CCAF was an owners' association typical of the time with the purpose of studying and defending the common interests of the shipowners. Within a year it represented 98% of the industry. De Rousiers quickly established a service to gather French and foreign information, which he described in March 1910,[18]

The information service of the Shipowners' Committee is not conceived in an academic spirit but in a spirit of practical use. We do not intend to constitute a compendium of jurisprudence or a compendium of statistics; We strive to point out to you all that seems likely to have an impact on your industry, anything that threatens your general interests, anything that is of a nature to serve them.

The information service and a legal section both were frequently consulted by the shipowners. With his considerable intellectual authority, de Rousiers was an effective defender of the interests of the shipowners and contributed to discussions on legislative project. At times he was criticized for being too effective in his lobbying.[19] During World War I (1914–18) there was an enforced truce between the shipowners and the labor unions, with the state as mediator. As soon as the armistice was declared the shipowners, led by the committee, reasserted their independence in negotiating wages. De Rousiers justified this position,[19]

Conditions vary according to the region; Working conditions vary according to traffic and categories of vessels. Remuneration also depends on the possibilities of each company. How could it be conceived that, in the midst of a crisis, a professional trade union would be forced, by submitting to such an arbitration procedure, to impose new burdens on all its members which might exceed the limit of what some can bear? It would be a lack of clairvoyance.

In 1923 the Société d'études et d'informations économiques, formed by the Comité des forges, published studies by de Rousiers defending "good" agreements.[20] De Rousiers represented the shipowners in the Standing Joint Committee on Merchant Shipping, established in 1925, which had the purpose of examining issues that could cause conflicts between owner and workers. He also represented the owners on the Joint International Maritime Committee led by Albert Thomas, which sought to establish international status for seafarers. He participated in the International Maritime Conferences organized by the International Labor Office in Genoa (1920) and Geneva (1926), where the main interlocutor was Havelock Wilson of Britain, head of the International Federation of Seafarers' Unions.[21] In 1930, although not a shipowner, de Rousiers was elected vice-president of the Comité central des armateurs.[18]

After the death of Tourville in 1903 and Demolins in 1907 he assumed leadership of the Science sociale group. He also presided over the École des Roches that Demolins had founded which sought to apply the lessons of social science to educational reform. From 1908 he held a seat in economic geography at the École libre des sciences politiques.[22] De Rousiers gave a course on Large Modern Industries at this school.[17]

De Rousiers supervised a major inquiry into French manufacturing in 1915–16, co-directed by Henri Hauser and Henri Hitier, for the National Association of Economic Expansion. He was one of the main rapporteurs of the major inquiry into the merchant marine by an extra-parliamentary committee from 1922 to 1927. He published a five-volume work on Les Grandes Industries modernes (1924–1928). He was appointed to the board of the Musée Social.[23]

Paul de Rousiers died on 28 March 1934.[1] His historical monograph on his own family, Une Famille de hobereaux pendant six siècles appeared after his death.[23] His name was given to the general cargo ship Paul de Rousiers, built in 1942 by the Chantiers de Provence in Port-de-Bouc.[17]