Introduction

At first glance the Vichy industrial system looks beautifully simple. Each sector was controlled by a Comité d'Organisation (CO) the president of which was appointed by the government. Supply was controlled by a different body also appointed by the state. The system of Comites d'Organisation was unified at a national level by the Centre d'Information Interprofessionnelle. All this contrasts sharply with the undisciplined industry of the pre-war years. It seems to anticipate a well-organized statist economy that might be seen to underlie French post-war prosperity. But the real situation was more complicated. The powers of the bodies set up by Vichy were not clear-cut. Authority on paper did not necessarily coincide with real influence. Furthermore, the committees of the wartime French economy were far from being tranquil cloisters in which industrialists learnt the benefits of co-operation with each other and with the state. Rather they were often battlefields on which the conflicts of the pre-war French economy, which had been intensified by the conditions of the war economy, were fought out.

The Comités d'Organisation

Historians studying Vichy industry have tended to concentrate on the COs. This is easy to understand. On paper, the committees had a very wide range of powers; in particular, they had planist and dirigist functions which fitted in well with the perspectives that post-war developments imposed on the Vichy economy.