Passage Two
More attention was paid to the quality of production in France at the time of Rene Coty. Charles Deschancl was then the financial minister. He stressed that workmanship and quality were more important than quantity for industrial production. It would be necessary to produce quality goods for international market to compete with those produced in other countries. The French economy needed a larger share of the international market to balance its import and export trade. French industrial and agricultural production was still not enough to meet the immediate needs of the people, let alone long-ranged developments. Essential imports had extended the national credit to the breaking point. Rents were tightly controlled, but the extreme inflation affected general population most severely through the cost of food. Food costs took as much as 80 percent of the workers’ income.
Wages, it is true, had risen, extensive family allowances and benefits were paid by the state, and there was full-time and overtime employment. Taken together, these factors enabled the working class to exist but allowed them no sense of safety. In this precarious(不安定) and discouraging situation, workmen were willing to work overseas for higher wages. The government was not willing to let workers leave the country. It was feared this migration of workers would deplete(耗尽) the labor force. The lack of qualified workers might stop the improvement in the quality of industrial products produced. Qualified workers employed abroad would only increase the quantity of quality goods produced in foreign countries. Also the quantity of quality goods produced in France would not be able to increase as part of its qualified labor force moved to other countries.
Passage TwoAccording to the passage, the French workers were ______