Editing Long Depression (section)

===France===
France's experience was somewhat unusual. Having been defeated in the [[Franco-Prussian War]], the country was required to pay £200 million in [[French indemnity|reparations]] to the Germans and was already reeling when the 1873 crash occurred.<ref name="cycles-4">{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Business Cycles and Depressions: An Encyclopedia|author=[[David Glasner]], Thomas F. Cooley|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=1997|isbn=0-8240-0944-4|article=Crisis of 1873|url=https://archive.org/details/businesscyclesde00glas}}</ref> The French adopted a policy of deliberate deflation while paying off the reparations.<ref name="cycles-4"/>

While the United States resumed growth for a time in the 1880s, the [[Paris Bourse crash of 1882]] sent France careening into depression, one which "lasted longer and probably cost France more than any other in the 19th century".<ref name="france-4">{{cite book|title=France and the Economic development of Europe (1800–1914)|isbn=0-415-19011-8|publisher=Routledge|year=2000|pages=70–71|author8=Rondo E. Cameron, Mark Casson}}</ref> The Union Générale, a French bank, failed in 1882, prompting the French to withdraw three million pounds from the [[Bank of England]] and triggering a collapse in French stock prices.<ref name="cycles-2"/>

The financial crisis was compounded by diseases impacting the wine and silk industries<ref name="france-4"/> French [[capital accumulation]] and [[foreign direct investment|foreign investment]] plummeted to the lowest levels experienced by France in the latter half of the 19th century.<ref name="france-4-2">{{cite book|title=France and the Economic development of Europe (1800–1914)|isbn=0-415-19011-8|publisher=Routledge|year=2000|pages=198–199|author8=Rondo E. Cameron, Mark Casson}}</ref> After a boom in new [[investment bank]]s after the end of the Franco-Prussian War, the destruction of the French banking industry wrought by the crash cast a pall over the financial sector that lasted until the dawn of the 20th century.<ref name="france-4"/> French finances were further sunk by failing investments abroad, principally in railroads and buildings.<ref name="france-5">{{cite book|title=France and the Economic development of Europe (1800–1914)|isbn=0-415-19011-8|publisher=Routledge|year=2000|page=320|author8=Rondo E. Cameron, Mark Casson}}</ref> The French [[net national product]] declined over the ten years from 1882 to 1892.<ref name="france-6">{{cite book|title=France and the Economic development of Europe (1800–1914)|isbn=0-415-19011-8|publisher=Routledge|year=2000|page=457|author8=Rondo E. Cameron, Mark Casson}}</ref>