© Louis BINZ, professeur. D'après son livre "Brève histoire de Genève"
Place de la Fusterie (C. - G. Geissler, 1804)
© Center of Genevese iconography, coll BPU.
The temple of Fusterie, built between 1713 and 1715, is the first Genevese sanctuary especially designed for the worship calvinist. The construction of the temple was accompanied by a complete upheaval of the place reserved up to now for the trade of wood. Released of its economic activities, the old port with wood was transformed into place arranged in walk on which one installed in 1773 a monumental fountain.
The economic situation at the XVIIe century Geneva passes through a crisis which lasts of 1610 to 1640. It is touched by epidemics of plague, the last which it will undergo. The foreign trade drops, industry is in regression. The main activity, the silk trade, dies out; in this field, as for the fairs in XVe century, Geneva is supplanted by Lyon.
Around 1650, the economic situation is rectified. The trade includes in proportions never known. The passementerie and gilding used for decorated clothing of time replace the silk trade. At this point in time ahead of of the scene the clock industry and the trades of art pass which are associated for him: goldsmithery, the jewelry, engraving, the enamel. The portable watches had been invented at the beginning of XVIe.
The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes: a second refuge The difficulties are increased by a new wave of refugees. In 1598, the Edict of Nantes legalized the existence of the Protestants in France. Louis XIV repeals it in 1685. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes puts Protestantism out the law and constrained at the exile those which do not want to abjure. Thousands of refugees arrive at Geneva. The city cannot retain them all. The majority from go away to Switzerland or Germany.
Nevertheless, much settle. Of 16 ' 000 inhabitants in 1690, the population rises with nearly 19 ' 000 in 1710. The majority of the refugees are originating in Languedoc, the Cevennes and the Dauphine one. The demographic contribution of the first refuge had been weak because it occurred at one time when the Genevese economy was still unable to get work with the emigrants. At the time of the second refuge, in spite of food shortages, the economy is in full rise and it is possible to several thousands of newcomers to find an employment.
The Genevese endeavors to accommodate the best possible these brothers in religion. One piles up in the existing residences, one raises the houses, one builds in the courses and the gardens. This effort however does not exclude from new accesses of xenophobia. In 1696, more than two hundred merchants and craftsmen complain, in a petition, facility with which the government admits the French. This hostile text allots to them many defects: these Southerners are too stirring up, they act badly, they do not have the civic spirit which is appropriate for a republic, they drive back with the ruin the indigenous tradesmen and craftsmen by practices which one judges déshonnêtes. The government brought back the calm one by formulating restrictions on the exercise of the trade by the foreigners.