Exhibition of the products of industry

The first exhibition of French industrial products had been held in September 1798 on the Champ-de-Mars, at the initiative of minister François de Neufchâteau: one hundred and ten exhibitors, three days. The idea was to replace the English outlet, closed by the war, with domestic emulation and publicity for manufacturers.

Chaptal, minister of the Interior, took up the formula and installed it in 1801 in the Cour carrée of the Louvre. This was the second edition, this time over six days, with more than two hundred exhibitors and a public distribution of awards.

The exhibition did not stand alone: it accompanied the creation of the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry in 1801 and the restoration of the chambers of commerce in 1802. Chaptal, a chemist turned industrialist before becoming a minister, governed the economy by survey, prize and demonstration rather than by regulation.

The prize-winners came from mechanics, weaving, clockmaking and chemistry — the sectors in which France was trying to close the English lead. The exhibition served as propaganda for the regime as much as technical encouragement.

The pace quickened: a third edition as early as 1802, again at the Louvre, with more than five hundred exhibitors, then a fourth in 1806 on the esplanade of the Invalides, which gathered more than fourteen hundred over nearly a month.

Interrupted by the wars, the series resumed under the Restoration and continued until 1849. From it was born, in spirit as in form, the first Great Exhibition in London in 1851.