Sociétés savantes et développement industriel à Liège sous les préfets d'Empire

Abstract

SUMMARY: Academies and learned societies have always been places of sociability and worked as a moving power for the literary and scientific life. Under the Empire, the political authority assigned them a priority task: the promotion of agriculture, industry and factories. From this point of view, the "Société Libre d'Emulation" of Liege constitutes an outstanding example. This society was founded in 1779 by the prince-bishop François-Charles de Velbruck, but suppressed by his successor Constantin de Hoensbroeck in 1792. It was established anew in 1809 by the prefects who gived it as a pattern the "Société d’Encouragement pour l'industrie Nationale" of Paris. Indeed, the "Société d'Emulation" has greatly contributed to the economic development of the region by means of competitions and exhibitions and by settling up a technical teaching, this policy survived the change of regime and was taken up by King William I of Holland.