ABSTRACT
The advent of the Single European Market has focused our attention on Europe as a new industrial unit which will also bring in its train trends towards common social and political patterns of organisation, It is intended that this larger entity will combine the industrial strengths of the various member states and cancel out their individual weaknesses. The creation of a significant sector of large, publicly quoted companies came only at the end of the 1920s and embraced also the then more modem industries, such as chemicals, electrical engineering and vehicle building. France's pattern of industrial development has differed significantly from that of both of its European rivals. The French economy displays a more uneven development and less balanced industrial composition. Industry depends not only on the easy availability of capital but also on an ample supply of suitably educated and trained human resources.
