Information AboutSaint-gobain |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT SAINT-GOBAIN | |
| 1665 establishments | |
| companies of france | |
| multinational companies | |
| glassmaking companies | |
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Saint-Gobain () is a Multinational Corporation , founded and headquartered in France . Originally a Glass making company, it now also manufactures a variety of structural and high-performance Material s. The Compagnie de Saint-Gobain was founded in 1665 when Louis XIV Of France wanted to encourage French manufactures at the same time that he was enlarging his father's hunting lodge at Versailles in woodland west of Paris. Louis's Minister Of Economy , Jean-Baptiste Colbert , was appointed to construct the facility and develop various new technologies, which were magnificently on display at the Château De Versailles , notably in the Salon Des Glaces , the "Hall of Mirrors" where the arch-headed windows overlooking the parterre were echoed in the framed panels of Saint-Gobain mirror-glass that reflected light through the gallery. At the time, the French did not possess glassmaking capabilities; rather Venice was known as the world leader for glass manufacturing. Colbert then commissioned the Venetians to build the mirrors that were known as the " Hall Of Mirrors ". This was the beginning of the Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, which, after a bankruptcy in 1702 owing to mismanagement, had its royal patents for monopoly in the manufacture of Fench mirror-glass renewed right down to the Revolution , in spite of fierce, sometimes violent, protests from the partisans of free enterprise. The Parisian Tax Farm ers who had bailed out the royal manufactory found it a safe place to invest capital, and were rewarded after ca. 1725, as the inherited shares passed into the great noble families into which the daughters of the original ''fermiers-generals'' had married. One wife of a shareholder was Mme Geoffrin, remembered for the Parisian Salon that gathered round her: her daughter married the marquis de La Ferté-ImbaultFernand Braudel, ''The Wheels of Commerce'' 1982, vol. II of ''Civilization and Capitalism'' p341f . Today, Saint-Gobain is a world leader in Engineered Materials. Through three business sectors; Glass, Construction Products and High-Performance Materials, Saint-Gobain operates throughout the world with sales of more than $40 billion. In December 2005 it purchased the British company BPB Plc , the world's largest manufacturer of plasterboard, for .7 billion. {Link without Title} EXTERNAL LINKS REFERENCES Saint-Gobain is also a Commune of the Aisne '' Département , in northern France . |
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