Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/114

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FRANCE.

of 1772 ; but the numerical calculation of 1784, made by order of Necker, was again nothing but a rough estimate. The subse- quent numbers were obtained from regular census returns : —

Year

Population

Increase during the period

Annual average of increase

1700

19,669,320

1762

21,769,163

2,099,843

55,259

1772

22:672,000

902,837

90,283

1784

24,800,000

2,128,000

177,333

1801

27,349,003

2,549,003

149,941

1806

29,107,425

1.758.422

351,685

1821

30,461,875

1,334.450

90,295

1826

31,858,937

1,397,062

279,412

1831

32,569,223

710,286

142,057

1836

33,540,910

971,687

194,337

1841

34,230,178

676,809

135,362

1846

35,400,486

1,170,308

254,062

1851

35,783,170

382,684

75,537

1856

36,039,364

256,194

51,238

1861

37,386,161 |

764,309 736,113*

152,862

1866

38,067,094

680,933

136,186

It is calculated that the loss of population to France in the first five months after the declaration of war against Germany, middle of July to middle of December, 1870, was upwards of 500,000. The drain upon the population caused by former wars, undertaken during the reio-n of Napoleon III., and the cost of the same, are stated as follows, in a report of the British Secretary of Legation in France, dated July, 1869 :—

Wars

Cost

Loss of Men

Crimea ..... Italy ..... China and Mexico.

Total.

£ 340,000,000

60,000,000 40,000,000

80,000 60,000 65,000

440,000,000

205,000

1 If to this drain be added the increase in the standing army,' says the report, ' it can scarcely be wondered at that the population should be in a stationary condition, and that such a state should have seriously affected, for some time, the national prosperity.'

There are 9 million families in France, 1 million of which are in easy circumstances. Of the 8 millions belonging to the industrial and working classes, 3 millions are inhabitants of towns. Whereas


 * Increase through annexation.