Belgium

Liège’s arms industry developed in the sixteenth century on local resources: wood and coal for fuel, iron for raw material, and water power from the Meuse and its tributaries.¹ Its arms travelled by river and road to France, Holland and Germany.¹ The principality had been neutral since 1492, and its neutrality helped merchants build contacts across national boundaries.¹ Jean Curtius made his fortune supplying arms and gunpowder to the Spanish crown, but the truce of 1609 interrupted his military exports.¹

In the seventeenth century artillery manufacture declined and portable firearms gained ground.² The Eighty Years’ War and the Thirty Years’ War sustained demand for Liège’s products.² The city had no separate gunmakers’ guild; its gunmakers belonged to sections of its 32 trades.² Merchants found the orders and divided the work among specialist artisans who worked at home in the suburbs.²

French revolutionary and imperial rule removed the neutrality that had let Liège sell to different nations.³ The military authorities restricted production and commerce.³ In 1801 Jean Gosuin received an exclusive production privilege and managed a store that received guns made by the district’s artisans.³ After independence, Belgium regained its neutrality and renewed contact with foreign markets.³

The Belgian government organised a company of gunmaking workers in 1837 and bought premises in rue Saint-Léonard the following year.^{4, 5} The Manufacture d’Armes de l’État began work there in 1840, teaching, making and repairing small arms.⁵ Between 1860 and 1890 machines spread through the trade, increasing output and helping Liège compete with American production centres.³ In 1886 Henri Pieper established a company to make gun parts by machine.³

In 1889 Liège gunsmiths formed Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre to fulfil a Belgian government order for 150,000 Mauser rifles at Herstal.^{6, 7} FN began its partnership with John Moses Browning on 17 July 1897.⁸ In March 1902 it obtained worldwide rights to make and sell his autoloading shotgun.⁹

When Liège was invaded in August 1914, the state manufactory evacuated its arms and spare parts.¹⁰ Late in 1915 a Belgian manufactory opened in Birmingham, adding production to the repair work undertaken at Calais.¹¹ In 1919 the manufactory returned to rue Saint-Léonard with machinery and equipment from Birmingham.¹² After the war FN set up an engraving department under Félix Funken to meet demand for decorated hunting guns.¹³

Between the wars, higher wages, difficulty in recruiting workers and competition troubled the trade, and the crisis of 1929 deepened its problems.¹⁴ Browning’s Superposed entered the American market in 1931, and European rearmament revived demand in 1935.^{15, 14} German forces requisitioned FN during the Second World War, and the wider industry faced years of reconstruction afterwards.¹⁴ Postwar production became more standardised, while FN’s engraving workshop grew to nearly 180 workers by the late 1960s.^{14, 13}

The FN group’s 2024 report dates Browning’s partnership with Miroku in Japan to 1965; Miroku dates its sales and technology alliance with Browning to December 1966.^{16, 17} Browning Viana began manufacturing in Portugal in 1973.¹⁸ The group acquired Browning Arms Company in 1977 and took the name FN Browning Group in June 2024.^{19, 20} Its Hunting and Sports Shooting division designs, makes and markets Browning and Winchester firearms alongside ammunition and components.²¹ In 2024 Browning North America covered the United States and Canada, and Browning International, in Herstal, covered other markets.²²