Roads led to the villages of Charenton, Charonne, Reuilly and Montreuil, which provided large amounts of wine, fruit and vegetables to the city.

In the 17th century, according to Piganiol de La Force, "The Faubourg Saint-Antoine increased prodigiously from the large number of houses that were built there, both because of the good air and because of the king's letters patent of 1657, which exempted from the qualification of mastership all artisans and tradespeople who lived there."

Firewood and construction timber from higher up the Seine was unloaded at the nearby Quai de la Rapée on the Île Louviers and stored in the faubourg, leading to development of woodworking crafts.

[1] Skilled Flemish and German artisans, often Protestant, moved to the faubourg and worked as carvers, gilders, polishers, turners and cabinetmakers.

This time he was so without reserve, so great an importance did he place ... on the work by means of which I proposed to remove the permanent obstacle ... to the line of control from which one could, in case of need, take the Faubourg Saint-Antoine from the rear.

[7] According to Daniel Halévy, As long as the Dreyfus crisis lasted the Fauberg Saint-Antoine was our fortress ... in the little room on Rue Paul-Bert, where we huddled together, workers and bourgeois, where we squeezed our chairs one against the other ... One day in autumn 1899, we watched for hours the return of the crown of workers who had been parading on the Place du Trône, before the Triomphe de la République, Dalou's bronze statue that had been unveiled that day.