북부 프랑스의 직물공업 도시 루베(1890년대~ 1914): 직물 생산자들의 공간을 찾아

Abstract

As in the other European countries, the textile industry, including all its wool and cotton production, constituted a foundational industrial field in France in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Roubaix, located in the extreme northern part of France close to Belgium, had a reputation in that field with the metropolitan northern economic center Lille. Roubaix''s textile companies, run by innovative, austere and, financially independent family businesses, persisted and expanded through the nineteenth century. Among the many factors of these achievements, a textile labor force furnished by the ever-flowing Belgian immigrants can explain the prosperity. Based on the economic and industrial analysis studied by specialists about Roubaix, we want to know the social aspects of Roubaix from another kind of approach. We presumed social Roubaix was composed of not only patrons and employees, nor capitalists and workers but also definitely circumscribed by the so many buildings of mill and factory, the streets and houses frequently called by a peculiar name “couree.” By the way, the contemporary documents, photographs and, finely designed and fabricated final goods remind us of textile workers’ consistent concentration upon their work under the distressing working conditions. Can we then link this distinctive feature to the space of industrial Roubaix to interpret it as a sign of the textile workers’ latent capacity? If the assumption is not irrational, we could add the northern-style cafe derived from the Belgian estaminet without hesitation. The reason is that a glass of alcohol accompanying the conversations, singing, and reading induced them toward a collective mind and intensified their unique social relationships. To be sure, they had to encounter the danger of tuberculosis coming to their children, wives or, themselves. For family survival, almost all the women invested themselves as a small wage-earner in any part of the woolen or cotton process. Another category for Roubaix that served as both material and spiritual encouragement was the cooperatives expressed as Peace(La Paix), Union, Fraternity, when cooperative establishments were not so popular in France. Especially working people in the northern part are practical and like to go to cooperatives which furnish indispensable articles like bread and coals, medical and child care aids. Church and municipality as well engaged for the betterment of labor peoples. Traditional conservative churches supported bourgeois social leadership, but democratic catholic movements reflected the current social critics against the capitalist environment. The collective workers’ campaign also made the election of the socialist mayor earlier than other French cities. Considering the aspects examined here, we can say at least the textile workers of Roubaix transform the physical space into meaningful “social space.” (Chungnam National University / ecouter@hanmail.net)