Last modified: 2014-04-23 by ivan sache
Keywords: chamber of commerce and industry | cci | hexagon | caduceus (blue) |
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The Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCI) are organizations
representing the interests of commercial and industrial professions.
The first Chamber of Commerce was created in 1599 by
Barthélemy de Laffemas in Marseilles. Subsequently, Colbert and Pontchartrain founded Chambers of Commerce in several town of the Kingdom of France. Suppressed in 1791, the 22 Chambers of Commerce were reestablished in 1802 by Chaptal.
The Chamber of Commerce of Paris was
created in 1803, together with Consultative Chambers of Factories, Arts and
Industry. Those Consultative Chambers were suppressed in 1950,
several of them being transformed into Chambers of Commerce.
Following the French example, Chambers of Commerce were founded in
Brussels (1703), Cologne (1707), New York (1768), Glasgow (1783)
Edinburgh (1786), etc.
In France, the members of the Chambers of Commerce are elected by
people listed on the trade register. The elections are supervised by the
State Council so that every professional branch has a representation
proportional to its economical importance. There are currently 180
Chambers of Commerce, with 4,500 elected members and 26,000
employees. The Chambers of Commerce are State establishments
supervised by several ministers.
As State establishments supervised by different ministers, the Chambers of Commerce have four main tasks:
- to represent the companies with the State authorities and inform
them. The Chambers of Commerce have an advisory competency on urban
development, transportation, industrial setting up and the
commercial, economical and customs legislation;
- to manage facilities such as ports (190), airports (121),
entrepots, bus stations and hotels;
- to inform and advise companies;
- to train companies' executives, via a network of
colleges such as HEC and the Écoles supérieures
de commerce in Paris and Lyon.
Source: Encyclopaedia Universalis
Ivan Sache, 14 October 2003
![[Flag of CCI]](../images/f/fr$cci.gif)
"Generic" flag of the CCIs - Image by Ivan Sache, 23 November 2009
Several CCIs use a standard emblem made of an hexagon divided in thin
sectors, in turn blue and red, emerging from a white disk decentered
to the lower right part of the hexagon. The disk is charged with a
blue caduceus representing commerce, surrounding by "CHAMBRE DE
COMMERCE ET D'INDUSTRIE" in red Capital letters, "running" all along
the circonference of the disk.
A "generic" CCI flag might have existed, divided blue-red by the
ascending diagonal and charged in the middle with the CCI emblem. I
spotted such a flag in Avignon in April 2004. It has just been spotted
by Nozomi Karyasu in New Caledonia.
Most CCIs having "modernized" their emblem, it seems that the hexagonal emblem, which was, however, easy to identify and a strong component of the identity of the CCIs, will probably vanish, as will the few flags still bearing it.
Ivan Sache, 23 November 2009
This list is not a comprehensive list of the CCIs but only an index of the CCIs for which flag-related information is available on this website.