Jean-Baptiste Say published his observations on Britain’s economic and industrial transformation in a book entitled De l’Angleterre et des Anglais, in 1816. His report, and those of others, convinced French engineers, businessmen, and politicians that the way to catch up with Britain economically was to exploit steam power. But they faced a problem: coal was scarce south of the Channel. French mines produced a million tons annually, and as most of these were in the remote Languedoc region, the price never dropped below twenty-eight shillings per ton, three times higher than in England’s
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