February 1996
abstract
Gérer & Comprendre
Issue 42
Editorial
By Michel BERRY
Président du Comité de rédaction
Trial by fact
La gestion des marines royales
The vasa, a swedish warship
By Lars Âke Kverning
In 1628, ships had to be adapted to an innovation in naval warfare : combat at a longer range in squadrons heavily armed with cannons. The two Dutch engineers responsible for designing and building the Vasa had to cope with a contradictory set of technical difficulties. The means for calculating a ship's stability did not yet exist, and scientists could not even imagine solving such a problem. Furthermore, political authorities had strict requirements.
Et un peu plus tard...
By Claire Hocquard
Colbertism judged by the evidence: A look back at the founding myth of french industrial policy
By Hervé Dumez
Colbertism is still much alive in the French collective memory. Under this doctrine, the government forced private interests _ and the world _ to pursue a policy of national economic development. Colbert's actions still serve as a model of success. The case of the Compagnie du Nord can be used to look back at this myth and examine its lesser known aspects.
The test : The vessel built in seven hours
By Hélène Vérin
In the 1670s, Colbert decided to set up the administrative and technical infrastructures for efficiently managing the production and maintenance of a navy in France. In 1679, a ship was built in seven hours in Toulon : this was proof of a new functional conception of management and also of the effectiveness of organizing labor in line with another idea, as Colbert tirelessly demanded.
Mémoire sur la nécessité de pourvoir à la disetie et à la foiblesse des ouvriers des ateliers, et sur les moyens d'y remédier
By le Sieur Delacroix
On organizing the navy in the modern period
By Hélène Vérin
In the 17th and 18th centuries, warships were built under government control or under contract. In the royal naval yards, these two ways coexisted in variable proportions. Throughout the 18th century, controversy constantly arose about whether a sound _management of human resources_ in the navy was compatible with the production system under contract. Delacroix's dissertation discusses the facts and proposes solutions.
In quest of a theory
Industrious bookkeeping in the 18th century
By Ernest Stevelinck
Techniques for penitentiaries in the late 18th century, when the Ghent prison served as a model, were intended to both regulate the comportment of individuals through work and balance the books by treating prisoners like homo oeconomicus. Meticulous bookkeeping techniques, which represented a finely detailed exercise in the rules of good economic comportment, became a way to vouchsafe the social and political legitimacy of incarceration.
Debates
Testifying
By Marcel Capet
En quête de théorie
Vauban, a manager
By Marcel Capet
Sébastien Le Prestre, lord of Vauban, is famous mainly for building fortresses. But he is also known for his writings. This man of many qualities made decisions based on practical reason that prove he was a great thinker. Even today, the modernity and pragmatism of these decisions still amaze us.
Débat
The perfect merchant according to jacques savary
By Yannick Lemarchand
Published in 1675, this literary classic for merchants dealt with the many aspects of management _ ranging from the training of trader apprentices through bookkeeping techniques, instruments of credit, currency problems, and the operation of commercial companies, to manufacturer's choices in still infant industries. The excerpts presented herein shed light on these preoccupations.