ABSTRACT
The presence of military troops was, by its very nature, to the advantage of those who sought to protect their industrial interests and private property, because it seriously limited the scope for effective protest. Local governors often supported the pleas for military protection coming from municipal authorities and they were generally keen on requesting troops long before the district and province governors were prepared to take this step. As local governors were gradually being marginalised from decisions on whether or not to involve military troops, industrialists lost their most important source of informal influence. If province and district governors were not always capable of controlling the local governors' use of their right to requisition, senior military commanders did the job. In Nord-Pas-de-Calais as well as in Westphalia any decision concerning the mobilisation of troops rested firmly in the hands of the prefects, the province governors and the army corps commanders.
