[2][3] In 1878, Paul Eugène Bontoux, former head of department of de Rothschild Frères, general counsel for Hautes-Alpes who had just been invalidated in the legislative elections of 1877 in Gap for vote fraud, former director of railway companies (the Staatsbahn (de) and the Südbahn) and who in 1874 successfully launched a loan on the public markets for lignite operations in Austria, took over the management of the General Union founded in 1875 in Lyon by a group of Catholic and monarchist bankers and who is in trouble.
[5] The bank met with great success in Catholic and Legitimist circles and obtained the support of the Count of Chambord, pretender to the throne of France.
The bank grew rapidly by multiplying redemptions and risky investments, particularly in the regions of Central and Danubian Europe.
and a struggle between "bears" (notably, Rothschilds) and "bulls", mixing politics, religion and finance, the General Union collapsed.
[7] The crisis of several years which followed mainly affected mines, metallurgy and the building industry, leading to a series of unemployment and violent social conflicts, including in 1884 "the great miners' strike", and in Decazeville.