Economy of Vietnam
Until the French colonization in the mid-19th century, Vietnam's economy had been mostly agrarian, subsistence-based and village-oriented. French colonizers, however, deliberately developed the regions differently as the French needed raw materials and a market for French manufactured goods, designating the South for agricultural production as it was better suited for agriculture, and the North for manufacturing as it was naturally wealthy in mineral resources. Though the plan exaggerated regional divisions, the development of exports—coal from the North, rice from the South—and the importation of French manufactured goods stimulated domestic commerce.
France–Vietnam relations
In 1680, the French East India Company opened a factory in Phố Hiến. The famous Frenchman Pierre Poivre visited Vietnam from 1720.
Towards the end of the 18th century, the Tây Sơn rebellion overthrew the Nguyễn family, but one of its members Nguyễn Ánh, future Emperor Gia Long, with the aid of the French Catholic priest Pigneau de Béhaine, titular bishop of Adran, obtained a treaty of alliance with the French king Louis XVI: the Treaty of Versailles, signed on November 21, 1787. In return Gia Long promised to cede Pulo-Condore to the French and to give a concession to the French in Tourane (modern Da Nang), as well as exclusive trading rights. That treaty marks the beginning of French influence in Indochina, but the Governor in Pondicherry, Count de Conway refused to follow through with the implementation of the treaty, leaving Pigneau de Béhaine to his own means.