Economy
The town of Le Quesnoy has somehow missed much of the Industrial Revolution. Unlike the neighboring towns of Valenciennes or Maubeuge, iron/steel works did not take hold. The lack of wealth underground and of a major transportation route partly explains this. The authorities however took note of this weakness and proposed the Ecaillon canal from Sambre to Scheldt; considered but abandoned because of low water yield in the forest of Mormal.
There is a craft, however, firmly maintained until 1945 when a hundred shoemakers were still identifiable. Shoemakers worked at home for a local company located in rue du Petit Valenciennes(now Désiré Tanis) in a kind of cottage industry. A glassmaking factory installed near the railway track to the site of the former Intermarché collapsed after the World War I. In the Bellevue district, the remains of a factory attest to the presence of a former pottery factory.
The post war boom or ‘trentes glorieuses’ saw develop an industrial outskirts of town: chemical company (Cofradec) and food (Laiterie des 4 Cantons) inaugurated by Charles de Gaulle in 1959.
Today, economic activity is mainly based on tourism and local shops. The town with its ramparts, its castle ponds and its history (including the Revolutionary Armed bivouac New Zealanders Monument on the border of Valenciennes are major attractions. The Quesnoy is home to many small traders and a trading area of more than respectable size for a town of less than 5,000 people.
The closure of industrial enterprises (Cofradec, Duarte, dairy products) and services (transport) remains problematic even though there have been some new sources of work such as with the Emig company.
The town comes alive on Friday morning still for its weekly market.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)