France was slow in industrialising. Even by the end of 19th century she remained a rural country with a large majority of people cultivating small plots of land. Manufacturers found it more profitable to give out work to rural workers who worked at home rather than to set up factories in towns. Such rural domestic production began to decline after 1850 resulting in economic adversity for the people. Machines in towns began to take over much of the work and only delicate hand work was given out to rural workers. Much of French industrialisation was a result of the spread of railway and road networks after 1860 which created a wide market for its industrial goods.
France also did not develop Banks which could mobilise large amount of capital and lend them to industrialists. As a result most of French manufacturers depended upon family resources. They remained small companies as a result. It also made them slow in adopting new ideas and technologies.
Heavy industry based on iron and coal was slow to develop in France as she did not have good reserves of coal and depended upon expensive imports. Thus French industrialisation remained focused on consumer products like textiles, which were basically small scale enterprises. This was in contrast to the German and British Industrial situation where heavy industries predominated.
So France lagged behind industrial development.
