Question 10

To what extent were Napoleon III’s economic and social policies successful?

• Success may be assessed by reference to aims, outcomes and context.
• In relation to social and economic policy, discuss successes, for example:
  • state stimulus to railway building (fivefold increase in extent) through operating leases  
  • the considerable knock-on effects to other industries (6% per annum growth in iron, steel and coal)
  • and agriculture (extension of railway network stimulated production for urban markets).
• Also examine the promotion of banking and free trade (Chevalier Treaty with Britain) and the work of Haussman in Paris.
• Examine the social costs of the last and the divisions over free trade.
• There are other qualifications to this success:
  • the end of the railway boom in the 1860s
  • the need to rescue Credit Mobilier in 1867
  • economic difficulties increased in the late 1860s.