in smaller workshops. Restraints on the growth of heavy industry included poor transportation infrastructure, the slow growth of agricultural production, of demand from the agricultural population, and a lack of raw materials and power sources. Historians are reluctant to use the term "Industrial Revolution" for France because the slow pace seems an exaggeration for France as a whole. The Industrial Revolution was well underway in Britain when the Napoleonic wars ended, and soon spread to Belgium and, to a lesser extent to northeastern France. The remainder remained little changed. The growth regions developed industry, based largely on textiles, as well as some mining. The pace of industrialization was far below Britain, Germany, the United States and Japan. The persecution of the Protestant Huguenots after 1685 led to a large-scale flight of entrepreneurial and mechanical talents that proved hard to replace. Instead French business practices were characterized by tightly held family firms, which emphasized traditionalism and paternalism. These characteristics supported a strong banking system, and made Paris a world center for luxury craftsmanship, but it slowed the building of large factories and giant corporations. Napoleon had promoted engineering education, and it paid off in the availability of well-trained graduates who developed the transportation system, especially the railways after 1840.' The only period in the 19th century in which economic growth accelerated at the rate of other industrializing nations was 1852–1857, during which modern industry gained preeminence over smaller, artisanal production. The advent of the railway integrated previously isolated markets, facilitated easy transportation of raw materials and finished products, and facilitated the development of mechanization and financing systems. By removing transportation barriers, the railways eliminated the limits on growth for industries like coal and metallurgy. Railway construction also provided a massive stimulus in itself to metallurgy, coal and engineering, "stimulating the further concentration of production by which capitalism became industrial rather than commercial." Small firms which had dominated local markets with their products made using small-scale, artisanal methods, now had to compete with mass-produced, cheaper, and often higher quality products coming from factories. Retailing Paris became world-famous for making consumerism a social priority and economic force, especially through its upscale arcades filled with luxury shops and its grand department stores. These were "dream machines" that set the world standard for consumption of fine products by the upper classes as well as the rising middle class. Paris took the lead internationally in elaborate