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MESSANCE, (M.) Recherches sur la population des généralités d'Auvergne, de Lyon, de Rouen, et de quelques provinces et villes du royaume, avec des réflexions sur la valeur du bled tant en France qu'en Angleterre, depuis 1674 jusqu'en 1764.
A Paris, Chez Durand, 1766. With numerous tables in the text. (8), 330, (6) pp. 4to. Modern half morocco, spine gilt with with raised bands and gilt lettering, marbled boards, top edge gilt, a very nice copy. Kress 6364; Goldsmiths 10185; Einaudi 3852; INED 3152; Higgs 3885; Weulersse i, xxviii. First edition. Very important work in which several of the opinions of Quesnay and Mirabeau are criticized. It notably criticizes the validity of Mirabeau's assertion that the French population had decreased and was not increasing. Messance, an eminent statistician, wrote this work with a view to disproving this theory by giving the results of enumerations of the people in various parts of the kingdom, with extracts from parish registers, etc., for periods of ten to upwards of forty years prior to 1760. These returns showed beyond doubt that instead of decreasing, the population had increased very considerably during the period to which they extended; they also supplied valuable data with respect to various matters of interest connected with the state of the population. In the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith speaks highly of Messance's investigations, calling him 'A French author of great knowledge and ingenuity'.The work also deals with the possibility of checking population growth (Messance thought it in general impossible to control population growth by legislative control). He also deals with luxery and urbanization which he did not consider as checks to population growth. Messance was an anti-physiocratic economist and his work includes a criticism of the physiocratic doctrine that freedom of trade in grain would elevate grain prices and therefore would be beneficial to the masses: Messance showed that the money wages of domestics and laboreres had risen despite the fall in grain prices. For a detailed analysis of the above work, see: Spengler, French Predecessors of Malthus, pp. 264-268. - Last 6 pages include the errata and the publisher's catalogue, as usual.    
Price: EUR 3000   Book number: 17320

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