Industrial activities and primary schooling in early nineteenth-century France

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of industrial activities on primary instruction in early nineteenth-century France. To do so, I use a newly constituted database on the location and characteristics of primary schools at the level of municipalities. This database is extracted from the Guizot survey conducted in 1833, before the implementation of the first national law making the opening of a school mandatory in any municipality more than 500 inhabitants. By using mineral deposits as an instrument, I first show that the presence of industrial activities in a given municipality was positively influencing the presence of primary schools. An increase in the supply of schools by municipalities explains this association. Additional resources transferred to them by manufactures favoured this increase through an income effect. However, I find no significant link between industry and the accumulation of human capital. On the contrary, I provide indications that industrial activities were associated with lower enrolment rates. If they had a positive impact on the demand for schooling, it was only for a very restricted part of the population.