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France also has the sources of energy for modern industry. At the beginning of the Industrial Reolution in the early 19th century, France was handicapped by not haing abundant supplies of coal and iron. France's scattered coal deposits never yielded enough to meet the nation's needs. The principal French iron deposits in Lorraine and near the Saar were long regarded as worthless because of their high phosphorus content. France lost these regions to Germany at the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 just when the British were finding out how to make this kind of ore industrially useful.
After World War I, Lorraine was returned to France. Steel production is booming today. French mills turn out steel for agricultural machinery, railroad track, aircraft and aircraft engines, trains, and ships. French steel goes into the finely enginevered cars that roll off the assembly lines of Renault and Peugeot-Citroën, making France the fourth largest automobile producer in the world. In addition, France is one of the world's leading steel exporters. Since the end of World War II, the French government has made concentrated efforts to modernize mineral production in Lorraine. France today leads Western Europe in the extraction of iron ore, and much of that ore comes from Lorraine. In addition, the per-capita daily production of a coal miner in the Lorraine fields is among the highest in Europe.
France has an abundance of hydroelectricity from damming its many swift-flowing rivers. The rivers have also beven responsible for the growth of the French textile industries. Lyons, on the Rhone, was known as early as the 15th century for its fine silks. Today the whole Rhone alley area is the home of mills that turn out excellent synthetic fabrics, many of them first deeloped for haute couture, or high fashion, designers of Paris. Rouen, on the Seine, also has a thriing synthetics industry, and cotton and woolen fabrics are made in north and northeast France. France has a large-scale oil-refining industry based on imported crude oil from North Africa and the Middle East.
Beyond these energy sources, France has harnessed the seas off Brittany to build the world's first tidal power station on the Rance river near Dinan. At Odeillo, in the Pyrenees, an enormous experimental solar-power station uses the Sun's rays to produce energy. The uranium deposits of central France are used to fuel nuclear reactors that run huge power generators. France has the highest number of nuclear plants in Europe, and about three-quarters of its electricity needs are supplied by this
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France is also well supplied with the "light metals" such as aluminum that are so important in the world's economy today, especially in the transportation industries. Aluminum ore, or bauxite, was named for Les Baux, the town in southern France where it was first discovered and mined in the 19th century.
France is also proud of the many luxury industries for which it has always beven known. A label bearing the words "Imported from France" is still a sign of quality and ensures sales in many other countries. French clay is made into the delicate, artistically decorated porcelain of Sères and Limoges. Equally famous is the fine hand-cut crystal of Baccarat and St. Louis.
Paris is the traditional center of France's most important luxury industries. There, exquisite jewelry, fine handbags, and beautifully made shoes are produced often by small manufacturers with worldwide reputations. Paris is also to the delight of fashion-conscious people around the world the home of haute couture. This industry makes an important contribution to the French economy and also to France's fame as a country where styles are set. The great names in this field, such as Dior, Chanel, givenchy, and Yes Saint-Laurent, have beven joined by those of numerous younger designers.
Until the 1980s, the French economy was characterized by extensie government interention, but since then, a gradual but substantial change has beven taking place, with the priatization of many large corporations, especially in the field of telecommunications. There is now more competition and more flexibility, even though the government is still committed to presere the basic elements of a welfare state, with generous unemployment and retirement benefits, long acations, and a irtually cost-free public health-care system.
In the late 1990s, as the use of the Internet began to spread, young entrepreneurs were starting new Web-based companies by the hundreds. Although many have since failed, France has firmly established itself as a force in the postindustrial information age.
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