Mantasoa was the site of Jean Laborde’s factory, located about 35 kilometres south-east of Antananarivo. The complex operated within a Malagasy economy already known for spinning, weaving, mining, and metallurgy, especially ironworking. It therefore became a place where local technical skills and knowledge received from Europeans were combined in a broad program of manufacture.

The factory’s production was unusually diverse. It forged iron and made pure steel, cement, cannons, mortars, arms, and ammunition, while also supporting tanning, glassmaking, earthenware, pottery, brick and tile production, soapmaking, candle production, papermaking, ink manufacture, and chemical processing. After 1843, it also raised Chinese silkworms, extending the range of activities beyond metallurgy and armaments.

Much of this production ceased after Laborde left Madagascar in the late 1850s. Some workers who had collaborated with him continued making goods required for local livelihoods, but domestic industry faced growing competition from cheaper imports of cloth, shoes, and earthenware from Europe and the United States. Mantasoa thus illustrates both the possibilities of industrial development and the vulnerability of local manufacturing to international trade.