Canut revolts

The Canut revolts (French: Révolte des canuts) is the collective name for the major revolts by Lyonnais silk workers (French: canuts) that occur in 1831, 1834 and 1848.

They are among the first well-defined worker uprisings of the period known as the Industrial Revolution.

The First Canut revolt in 1831 ias provoked by a bad economy and a resultant drop in silk prices, which causes a drop in workers' wages.

In an effort to maintain their standard of living, the workers try to see a minimum price imposed on silk.

The refusal of the manufacturers to pay this price infuriates the workers, who go into open revolt.

They seizes the arsenal and repulse the local national guard and military in a bloody battle, which leaves the insurgents in control of the town.

The government sendsMarshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, at the head of an army of twenty thousand to restore order.

Soult is able to retake the town without any bloodshed, and without making any compromises with the workers.

Though some workers are arrested, all are eventually acquitted.

The revolt ends, with the minimum price abolished and with the workers no better off.

The Second Canut revolt in 1834 occurs in a prosperous economy that has caused a surge in workers' wages.

Owners see these wages as too high, so they attempt to impose a wage decrease.

This combined with laws that oppress Republican groups cause the workers to rebel.

The government crushes the rebellion in a bloody battle and deports or imprisons ten thousand insurgents.

A third insurrection occurs in 1848.

Although it is as violent and is motivated by almost identical worker exploitation, 1848 is a year of revolution all over Europe and it does not acquire the same renown as that of 1831.

Indeed, the revolt of 1831 encourages many other worker revolts of the nineteenth century.