decline, like textile, candle and soap manufacture. The preferential colonial markets compensated for the weakness of French exports elsewhere. Late 19th century crisis France, like other industrializing countries of the time, suffered the effects of a worldwide economic downturn in the late 19th century. Depressions and periods of recovery characterized the entire epoch between 1880 and 1914. By the time full recovery began at the end of the century, French industrialization was behind 15 years and the long period of crisis had scarred entrepreneurs and investors. France recovered better from the Panic of 1873 than other countries like Germany, and resumed strong growth on a par with that of the 1850s until the end of 1881. There was a severe business depression in England, France, Belgium and Germany lasting from 1882 to 1885 or 1886. The failure of the French bank Union Générale in early 1882 had reverberations throughout Europe. According to Alan Sorkin, "Nearly £3 million were withdrawn from the Bank of England for France between 30 January 1882 and 15 February 1882. Stock prices fell dramatically, affecting not only France but other neighboring countries." There was an uptick in growth in the economy 1887–1889, but it wasn't until 1897-98 that full recovery took place." The worldwide downturn was particularly severe in France, because of demand problems like slow demographic growth and the large proportion of the population employed in agriculture (45% in 1891). This was a sector whose already low paid workers suffered even greater losses of income from the downturn. The distribution of the national income left workers with little extra money to spend, and also ensured that bourgeois demand continued to be “highly individualistic”. These characteristics limited the development of mass consumption. Scourges like the Great French Wine Blight, caused by the Phylloxera insect, and the parasitic disease known as Pébrine which affected silkworms and the silk industry, made the depression of 1882 worse and more prolonged. The importance of wine production to the economy was such that around 37% of French GDP was lost between 1885 and 1894 due to phylloxera. Other factors contributing to the length and seriousness of the depression were the debt defaults of a number of foreign governments, railway company bankruptcies, a trade war between Italy and France between 1887 and 1898, new French tariffs on imports, and the general adoption of protectionism throughout the world. Between 1881 and 1892, the