We’ll start with the end of the chapter. We have a mysterious figure who rescues two children from the burning town hall (who set the fire??) the day he arrives and he is conveniently able to erase his own history. Hugo clearly hints that this innovative man named Père Madeleine just might be the man we used to know as Jean Valjean. That aside I want to look at the description we get of Madeleine’s economic endeavors and their profitability.
It’s the kind of parable you might find in a text describing a utopian version of capitalism. There is a market where the high raw material cost results in low wages and slim profits. An innovator comes along and realizes the same thing can be achieved with a substitute raw material that is much cheaper and so he seemingly inserts himself into the industry and transforms it. Now with lower raw costs they can pay everyone a better wage, lower the price of their product and still make more profits! The inventor grows wealthy, the workers are living better than ever, and the consumer has a better product at a lower cost. PROGRESS.
In reality this seems like the inverse of what would actually happen today (or through most of the history of extractive capitalism). First there is Madeleine. He’s a stranger here outside this industry and he has this innovative idea. Someone is stealing that idea, getting a patent and then threatening to sue Madeleine if he ever tries to use it for himself. Next the wages of the laborers - we know they’re not seeing these new profits unless they’re unionized and can make it to the bargaining table. Lastly the consumer - the idea that the price will be lowered is laughable today. This is getting an advertising campaign that says something like “new and improved with the same low price!” and ALL of those profits are going straight into the pockets of the guy (or guys, and they’re almost always guys) in charge.
Maybe my version is in danger of being a caricature, but it surely accords more with reality than the utopian vision in the text. I think what Hugo describes here is what many HOPED capitalism could be (and some still seem convinced it is) in this period where France was still transitioning from their former feudalism.
I’ve recently been re-watching The Wire with my brother and this tale immediately made me think of a scene from season 1 that is EXACTLY the opposite of this. It’s D’Angelo, Poot & Wallace talking about the hypothetical inventor of the McNugget, and it’s worth dropping here: