On March 3, 1851, a certain F. Sain, deputy of the Loire, asked the Legislative Assembly of the Second Republic to create in Paris a "Workers' Exchange," which would help the circulation of labor, along the lines of the Financial Exchange, which had so favored that of capital since its creation in 1724.
But this idea was only taken up in 1875 and submitted, in 1884, to the municipal council of Paris, with a Blanquist and radical-socialist majority, which voted the principle.
The first labor exchange was inaugurated in 1887.
Its objective was to provide the trade unions, authorized since the 1884 law on freedom of association, with a "house" bringing together the various trades, which would have offices and meeting rooms.
