page_title: François Barthélemy Arlès-Dufour
section_title: Public activities
hierarchical_section_title: François Barthélemy Arlès-Dufour / Public activities
context_page_description: François Barthélemy Arlès-Dufour was a French silk merchant and leading exponent of Saint-Simonianism.
  He was born to a poor family, had little formal education and began work in a shawl factory at the age of 16.
  Later he joined a silk company based in Liepzig, Germany, married into the owners' family and was placed in charge of its Lyon operations.
  Working first for his in-laws and then independently, he made a fortune in silk.
  Arlès-Dufour also became involved in banking, railways and the Suez canal project.
  He played an important role in the Lyon Chamber of Commerce, and as a member of the jury in various international expositions.
  He believed in free trade and in social institutions that would help the most disadvantaged social classes.
context_section_description: Arlès-Dufour was hostile to the monarchy of the Bourbon Restoration, and during the July Revolution of 1830 served in the National Guard and was temporarily deputy mayor.
  He was a municipal councilor of La Guillotière, a district of Lyon, in 1855, and general councilor of the Rhône department.
  Arlès-Dufour was elected to the Lyon Chamber of Commerce in 1832, and remained a member for almost 36 years.
  He exerted a strong liberal influence, and gained a considerable reputation for his frank statements about the policies of successive governments.
  He supported Bowring in his efforts to reduce tariffs in 1834, but they faced strong opposition from the winegrowers and the Lyon Chamber of Commerce refused to give support.
  As a member of the Lyon Chamber of Commerce, Arlès-Dufour organized an exhibition of foreign silk factories in Lyon in 1834 so local producers could compare their goods to those of their main foreign competitors.
  Arlès-Dufour was a member of the jury at the Exposition des produits de l'industrie française in Paris in 1844 and 1849.
  He attended The Great Exhibition in 1851 in London as a member of the jury.
  He was secretary-general of the imperial commission for the 1855 Paris Exposition Universelle.
  He was again a member of the international jury at the 1862 International Exhibition in London and the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris.
  During the 1851 exposition Arlès-Dufour discussed establishment of a free trade agreement with his friend Cobden, and this led to cooperation between Cobden's party and the French Association for Free Trade.
  However, there remained strong opposition to free trade in France, and it was not until 1860 that the Emperor imposed a treaty of commerce with England by a "customs coup".
  Arlès-Dufour's struggle for free trade was finally vindicated with the 1860 Cobden–Chevalier Treaty for free trade between Britain and France.
  Richard Cobden, who signed the treaty on behalf of Britain, wrote a personal note to him thanking him for the role he had played in the conclusion of the agreement.
  In August 1860 Napoleon III visited Lyon, where he made Arlès a Commander of the Legion of Honour.
  Arlès-Dufour gave his support to Julie-Victoire Daubié in her efforts to become the first woman to obtain a Bachelor's degree in France.
  He was one of the adjudicators in 1859 for a prize that  Daubié won for her essay La Femme pauvre au XIX siècle (Women and Poverty in the Nineteenth Century).
  He and Daubié founded the Association pour l’émancipation progressive de la femme.
  He persuaded the Empress Eugénie to award the Legion of Honour to the painter Rosa Bonheur.
  Arlès-Dufour was involved in various charitable organizations including the Comité auxiliaire de bienfaisance (from 1829), the Caisse de prêts des chefs d'atelier de soierie and the Société de Secours mutuels des ouvriers en soie.
  He was a strong believer in the right of poor people to education.
  He founded the Société d’Instruction primaire du Rhône in 1828, and was this society's secretary general until his death.
  Arlès-Dufour and Désiré Girardon, professor at the Martinière college, founded the École Centrale lyonnaise pour l'Industrie et le Commerce in 1857.
  The purpose was to train the best students of the Martinière School in chemistry, industrial mechanics, civil construction and industrial design.
  The school, today the École centrale de Lyon, opened on 3 November 1857 with 14 students.
  In 1864 Arlès-Dufour founded the Société d'enseignement professionnel du Rhône.
  He also founded a public library, a free primary school and a free secondary school in the Lyon suburb of Oullins.
  On 30 November 1867 Arlès-Dufour. Émile de Girardin and Frédéric Passy founded the International and Permanent League for Peace.
  In 1868 he created a homeopathic dispensary in Lyon.
caption: Rosa Bonheur. Arlès-Dufour helped obtain the award of the Legion of Honour for her.
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