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ROUBAIX

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 767 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROUBAIX , a manufacturing See also:

town of See also:northern See also:France, in the See also:department of See also:Nord, 6 m. N.E. of See also:Lille on the railway to See also:Ghent. Pop. (1906) 119,955. Roubaix is situated about a mile from the Belgian frontier on the Roubaix See also:Canal, which connects the See also:lower Deule with the See also:Scheldt by way of the Marcq and the Espierre. Tramways connect the town with Lille and with the neighbouring communes of See also:Tourcoing (pop. 62,694), Croix (pop. 16,292) and Wattrelos (pop. 14,618), with which it unites to See also:form one See also:great See also:industrial centre. The See also:chief business of Roubaix is the woollen manufacture, but See also:cotton, See also:silk and other materials are also produced. The chief of these are See also:fancy and figured stuffs for garments, See also:velvet and upholstering fabrics. See also:Wool-combing and wool-dressing See also:works, See also:spinning-See also:mills, See also:weaving establishments, dye-houses and See also:printing-works occupy some 50,000 See also:work-See also:people, and four See also:hundred firms See also:act as See also:commission agents for the See also:sale of raw material and the other requisites for the See also:industry.

See also:

Power is supplied chiefly by See also:steam, less than 5000 out of 28,000 looms being See also:hand-looms. There are breweries, See also:rubber-works, See also:metal foundries and machinery-works in the town. See also:Tomato and See also:grape growing under See also:glass for the See also:winter See also:market is extensively prosecuted. To maintain the high See also:standard of See also:artistic See also:taste which has made the industry of Roubaix a success, See also:schools have been multiplied. By the co-operation of the town and the See also:state the See also:national school of industrial arts was founded in 1883. This is a small university of See also:art,See also:commerce and industry, the twenty-two courses of which include all the branches of knowledge useful in any of those pursuits. Among the public institutions are the tribunal of commerce and the chamber of commerce, the See also:exchange, a See also:board of See also:trade-See also:arbitration and the See also:establishment (See also:bureau de conditionnement) for determining the nature and See also:weight of silk, wool and cotton. The prosperity of Roubaix had its origin in the first factory See also:franchise granted in 1469 by See also:Charles the Bold, See also:duke of See also:Burgundy, to See also:Peter, See also:lord of Roubaix, a descendant of the royal See also:house of See also:Brittany. In the 18th See also:century Roubaix suffered from the See also:jealousy of Lille of which it was a dependency, and it was not till the 19th century that its See also:industries acquired real importance. The See also:population, which in 1804 was only 8700, had risen in 1861 to 40,000, in 1866 to 65,000, and in 1876 to 83,000.

End of Article: ROUBAIX

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