ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author aims to provide a descriptive account of the mid-nineteenth century crisis, are essentially introductory. The European crisis that culminated in 1848 was perhaps the clearest coincidence of global economic and political instability of which we know. The principal distinguishing characteristic of an old-style crisis is that it originated in the agricultural sector. The most direct link between agricultural and financial crises derived from the need to import grain in large quantities to feed the population, especially in urban areas. In England commercial crisis followed agricultural much as it did in France. The Bank of France actually consolidated its position by absorbing several provincial banks and by acquiring new privileges like the right to issue one hundred-franc notes. In France industrialization had proceeded steadily since the Restoration, but it would be the end of the nineteenth century before the factory would win out over the small workshop.
