The Coal Shipowner Marcesche (1898-1939)
Journal Title: Codrul Cosminului - Year 2012, Vol 18, Issue 2
Abstract
In France, Lorient, city located in Brittany, is representative of the medium-sized ports. But how to explain the creation of an industrial and coal shipyard group in the last years of the 19th century in the port of Lorient? It is definitely not the port's conjecture which was then buoyant. Ranked seventeenth by its traffic, its rating is finally excellent, for Lorient, which was still suffering from its past and the absence of hinterland, benefited from a self-centered development around coal, the only path of sustainable growth, which the manufacturer Emile Marcesche had perfectly understood. Emile Marcesche is a new man. From Anjou, he is fatherless and comes from a wine-growers family and is a pure product of the non-religious school of which he manages to be a brilliant superior primary school teacher in Angers. In short, an intellectual. His success is linked to his settling down in the maze of the Lorient notables. But what are the conditions of this settling down? Marcesche, through his marriage, is introduced to a Lorient elite, very marked politically speaking, royalist and catholic. He is thrown into this background, a very conservative and reactionary politic melting-pot. But one of the keys to understand his path, is that, thanks to his in-laws' network, he has an easy passage into the world of preserve manufactures, at the head of one of the biggest preserve industrial groups in South Brittany, with different sites in numerous Breton ports, from Audierne to Quiberon, but also in Portugal, Morocco and Algeria. Those manufacturers will supply Marcesche wit the necessary capitals, notably to constitute an important steamer ships fitting out. Marcesche appears like a very pragmatic man, but with intuition. He maximizes his fitting out function by investing in the setting up of a subsidiary in Cardiff, which he entrusts with Marcel Ragody, to give it a scale that exceeds the simple service to the firm Marcesche. With its offices in the other Welsh ports, it becomes one of the first houses concerning coal export towards the French and even foreign ports and the essential go-between of numerous mine-posts suppliers with Welsh firms.
Authors and Affiliations
Pascal Boisson
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP98301
- DOI -
- Views 99
- Downloads 0
The monastery of Soumela and ancient trade routes connected to it
It is a well known fact that trade routes and temples had a close relation. It is not possible to exempt monasteries from this generalization. It is inevitable to build connection between trade and three monasteries loca...
Convicts’ Labour in Russian Penitentiary Practice of the 17th – 18th Centuries: from Punishment to Correction Remedy
The results of historical and legal research of the key characteristics of Russia’s penitentiary policy in the sphere of convicted criminals’ labour organization in the 17th – 18th centuries are presented in the article....
From Totalitarian to Democratic Society in the Post-Soviet Space: Management and Implementation Process of Gender Policy in Ukraine (1991-2017)
The article reveals the development of gender relations in contemporary Ukraine. The author admits that since gaining independence, the Ukrainian society passed various stages in the legal management of gender issues: fr...
Restitutio. L’anniversaire de 450 années de la sanctification du Monastère Voroneţ (Bucovine). Le service divin. Les discours
În anul 2008, în perioada 25 mai-14 septembrie, sub genericul „Sfânta Mănăstire Voroneţ – 520 de ani” au avut loc manifestările aniversare dedicate împlinirii a 520 de ani de la fondarea mănăstirii Voroneţ, ctitoria din...
The Yalta Conference as reflected in Romanian Historiography
In this article the author has attempted to present the opinions of the Romanian historians on the Yalta Conference, expounded in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. In the postwar...