Auguste Mimerel

Auguste Mimerel
Auguste Mimerel in 1867
Deputy for Nord
In office 13 May 1849 – 2 December 1851
Senator for Nord
In office 26 January 1852 – 4 September 1870
Personal details
Born	Pierre Auguste Rémy Mimerel (1786-06-01)1 June 1786 Amiens, Somme, France
Died	16 April 1871(1871-04-16) (aged 84) Roubaix, Nord
Nationality	French
Occupation	Industrialist, politician

Auguste Mimerel (1 June 1786 – 16 April 1871) was a French industrialist and politician. He was owner of a large cotton mill, and was active in industry associations. He supported the use of child labor, and was in favor of high tariffs to protect domestic industry. He became a deputy in the legislature in the short-lived French Second Republic, then a senator during the Second French Empire. In 1867 he was made a Count of the Empire.

Auguste Mimerel was born on 1 June 1786 in St Firmin-en-Castillon, Amiens, Somme. He came from a provincial bourgeois family. He was the third of six children of Antoine Firmin Mimerel (1750–1828) and Guillaine Françoise Florence Le Bas (1761–1830). In 11 May 1809, in Paris, he married Marie-Joséphine Flahaut, daughter of Adrien Joseph Flahaut. They had two children, Antoine Auguste Edouard Mimeral (1812–81) and Caroline Augustine Joséphine Mimerel (1816–97). Mimerel was a tall man at 1.92 metres (6 ft 4 in) with powerful shoulders, grey-eyed, highly intelligent, and dominating.

The Mimerels moved to Roubaix, a small town outside Lille with just over 8,000 inhabitants, on 7 April 1816. Auguste Mimerel was 30 and had been working in the textile trade for twelve years. He was given the opportunity to partner with Théodore Delaoutre's textile trading company, Filature Delaoutre, which soon became the Delaoutre-Mimerel company. Mimerel created one of the largest cotton mills in the Nord department.

In 1924 Mimerel created the Committee of Spinners of Lille to defend protection of their industry. His views were Malthusian and could be summarized as "low investment, few exports and high tariffs." He was in turn President of the Conseil des Prud'hommes (1827), President of the Consultative Chamber of Manufactures (1828) and Municipal Councilor of Roubaix (1830). Just before the July Revolution of 1830 the Prefect of the Nord identified Mimerel and his brother, a justice of the peace, as "leaders of the hostile party" in Roubaix. That is, they were liberal and opposed to the Bourbon monarchy.

After the July Revolution Mimerel retained liberal principles at first. As late as the fall of 1832 Mimerel, as President of the Consultative Chamber of Arts and Manufactures of Roubaix, was opposed to the seizure of foreign wool by customs, because "it would be against the spirit and needs of the century, which both demand new commercial freedoms rather than new constraints." During 1833–34 he became fully converted to protectionism. Mimerel was the most vocal of the industrialists during the commercial inquiry organized by Tanneguy Duchâtel in October–November 1834. He spoke as Mayor of Roubaix and Chamber of Commerce delegate for Lille, Roubaix and Tourcoing. He said, "Lifting prohibition will compromise the existence of considerable numbers of French citizens." He fiercely defended industrial liberty within France and opposed repeal of protection against foreign goods. He said national producers must show solidarity, and there would be revolts by the workers if British goods were allowed in.