ABSTRACT
In 1848 workers challenged for political power in France and in Limoges, as they would throughout the century in the industrializing city, sometimes violently, as in 1871. The workers, too, had begun to manifest an interest in republican politics. Limoges's development as an industrial centre was aided by the availability of a skilled labour supply in the porcelain industry and a mass of unskilled workers from the hinterland. Commerce was enriching the Limoges bourgeoisie, who used some of their profits to buy up considerable property in the communes surrounding the city. During the restoration, most men of commerce were lumped together in the list of voters as 'negociants'; they were listed with greater precision by their actual occupation. Some Limogeauds had, during the course of the 1820s, become concerned with improving their long-neglected urban environment, beginning with the Rue de la boucherie.
