France’s factories and the worker revolution

sir – By a stroke of serendipity I was reading your review (June 9) of Joshua B Freeman’s book about the history of factories just hours after visiting the Royal Factory here in the south of France.

The Manufacture Royale was commissioned by Louis XIV’S finance minister in 1677. As well as water-powered machines to make cloth, it provided accommodation for the workers, predating the Cadbury Bournville model by a couple of centuries. I wonder if someone needs to do a revisionist history of the Industrial Revolution. Val Wake

Lodève, Hérault, France

Dark satanic mills: not all resembled the one in Franz Seiwert’s painting Factories (1926)