十九世紀後半～第一次世界大戦期のフランス有機化学工業

-主要企業の具体的事例に即して-

抄録

This article aims to examine two principal aspects of France's organic chemical industry from the second half of the 19th century to World War I ; the first is the declining process of France's tar dye industry, and the second is the formation of French pharmaceutical industry during this period.
As for the first point, two cases will be investigated. Firstly, the Saint-Denis Company had to abandon the fabrication of synthetic alizarins in the 1880s, mainly because of stiff competition with German companies. Secondly, the Usines du Rhône Company discovered a new synthetic process of indigos at the turn of the century, and succeeded in licencing its patents to Hœchst Co.. But the adventure of the Usines du Rhône was doomed to fail, mainly because of the poor performance of this company's top management.
The case of the Usines du Rhône will also be useful for clarifying the second point. In spite of the failure in the field of tar dye industry, this company had successfully commercialized the synthetic pharmaceutical products such as salicylates, antipyrine and synthetic anesthic, as well as the synthetic perfume and the cellulose acetate just before World War I. In talking about the factors contributed to this development, emphasis will be placed on two points ; the renovation of the managerial system by the Société Générale Bank and this company's traditional eagerness to establish and maintain R & D laboratories, which were commonly held to has been little developed in France before World War I.