506 PRESIDEM'S ADDRESS. SECTION.' Ql. 



In China, in the description by Yuking of the Provinces, statis- 

 tical results date as far back as 2300 B.C., and in 1200 B.C., what may- 

 be called topographical officials compiled elaborate statistical records 

 01 their districts. 



In ancient Greece, the various classes of citizenship, the privi- 

 leges of the citizens, their obligations of miiitarj^ and naval service, 

 their property, and their taxes and public burdens, demanded the 

 institution of many statistical inquiries of a systematic character. For 

 example, in Solon's tax-census, in 594 B.C., the people were divided 

 into four classes according to the supposed returns of their property 

 estimated in wheat, and a poll-tax was imposed on alien residents; 

 while a census in Athens, as far back as 309 B.C., distinguished the 

 different classes in the population, there being 21,000 citizens, half 

 that niunber of aliens, and nineteen or twenty times the number of 

 slaves. 



In Eome fairly elaborate statistics commenced from the time of 

 Servius Tullius, while the first census in the presence of the Censors 

 was in 435 B.C. 



2. Medic^val Statistics. — Mediaeval statistics were often very fully 

 developed. Among notable examples may be mentioned the following : 

 — The " Caroli magni memoratorium " of A.D. 807, and " Brevis capi- 

 tulorum" of A.D. 808; Al-Mamun's " Description of the Khalifate" in 

 A.D. 830 ; our own " Domesday Book," viz., that of William the Con- 

 queror, in A.D. 1088; the "Land Register" of the Danish King, 

 Waldemar II., A.D. 1231; and Macchiavelli's "Ritratti della Francia e 

 della Allemagna " in A.D. 1515. These later examples of comprehen- 

 sive statistical compilation reveal the importance attached in the 

 Middle Ages to systematic summing up of public information by those 

 who were responsible for the greater administrations. 



3. Modern Statistics. — Modern statistical compilations answering 

 to the same ideal may be said to have commenced with Sebastian 

 Miinster's work — viz., in his sis volumes, appearing in part in 1536, 

 and completed in 1544. This work, illustrated by maps, dealt with the 

 boundaries, divisions, principal towns, history. State organisation, 

 rulers, nobles, estates, armies, etc., militarj^ capacity, church matters, 

 laws, customs, manners, &c., of practically all the countries of the 

 civilised world; and of the principal cities thereof. Their commerce 

 and wealth were also treated of in considerable detail. In 1562, 

 Francesco Sansovini produced his "' Del governoed administratione di 

 diversi regni ed republiche." Thus, Giovanni Botero's '" Le relation! 

 universali divisi in quatro parti" in 1589 ; Pierre d'Avity's "' Les etats, 

 empii'es et principautes du monde, &c.," and the sixty " Respublicse 

 Elzeviranae " commenced in 1626, are monumental examples of early 

 modem statistical corapilation. 



4. University Influence. — At quite an early period University 

 traditions greatly helped the development of statistics as a branch of 

 organised knowledge. As far back as 1660 Conring introduced statis- 

 tical studies into the University curriculum, his lectures becoming the 

 model for those of Oldenburger in Geneva, of Bose, Sagittarius, and 

 Schubart in Jena, of Beckmann at Frankfurt on the Oder, and of 

 Herz at Giessen. The science of administration, finance, and statistics 

 was widely taught. Thomas Salmon's " The Present Statistics of all 



