The Firm Worms & Co was founded in the middle of the nineteenth century by the French merchant Hypolite Worms (1801-1877). From the beginning, the European and international vocation of his company led him to consider setting up in Great Britain: in Swansea, Newcastle, Great-Grimsby, … He ships French products there and brings back English coal sold on the French coast. He thus became a coal importer, then a maritime carrier opening lines linking Bordeaux, Le Havre and Rouen to Hamburg, Antwerp and to the North of Europe. Later, in the twentieth century, one sector of activity opening up prospects in another, his house will open branches or offices in Rotterdam, Genoa, Prague, Danzig, Warsaw, …
Mathieu Bidaux is a corporate historian for Phoramm Sàrl, which is a company responsible for studying and promoting the history of Worms & Co. He has a doctorate in contemporary history and he is an associate researcher at the GRHIS laboratory at the University of Rouen Normandy. His latest book, La fabrication des billets en France : Construire la confiance monétaire (1800-1914) was published by Presses de Sciences Po in 2022.
Tuesday, 3 October 2023
17.00 - 18.30 (CET)
C²DH Open Space (4th floor, Maison des Sciences humaines)
Free entrance