508 president's address. — section gi. 



was no less incisive. Besold, in 162."j, in liis " Synopsis Politicae Doc- 

 trinae," von Senckendorf, in 1655, in his " Deutscher FUrstenstaat," 

 Boecler in his " Institutiones Politicse" of 1674, and von Leibniz, in 

 1700, all urged the desirableness of official statistical inquiries. 



The precedent for making such inquiries already existed, for, 

 according to von Ranke (see " Flirsten and Volker" I., p. 120), as 

 ■early as 1575, Philip II. of Spain addressed seventy-five questions to 

 Jiis prelates and corregidors regarding the condition of their disti-icts, 

 and the replies were classified for the King's use. In France, the 

 finance and other investigations of F'roumenteau in 1581, and of 

 Pasquier in 1581, of Sully between 1597 and 1610, were fine examples 

 of official statistics. In Wiirttemburg, a registration of local citizen- 

 ship, commenced in 1622, was made e/ery twelve years. In Austria, 

 the " Status Regiminis Ferdinandi " dated from 1637. In 1645, in 

 Brandenburg, and two years later in Hesse, a registration was made of 

 tax-collection bureaux, of peasant proprietors, and of men of other 

 occupations. 



In 1665, Jean Baptiste Colbert's statistics of trade appeared, and 

 in 1684 annual accounts of births, deaths, and marriages in all 

 sections of Brandenburg. The year 1696 saw the development of the 

 English parliamentary papers, among the finest examples, if not the 

 finest of public documents. 



In 1719 Frederick William I. of Prussia began his half-yearly 

 accounts of populations, their occupations, of houses and real estate 

 generally, of the finances, taxes, &c., but it was resented for Frederick 

 the Great to make statistics the outcome of thoroughly methodical 

 observation over a wide range of public matters. The scope of his 

 scheme was well elaborated. The tabulations took account of social 

 state, of age, of nationality, of deaths each month, classified under no 

 less than fifty-six classes, of the agricultural population and holdings 

 under various classes, and of industrial pursuits under 460 classes. In 

 1747 detailed reports of 70 to 100 dift'erent articles of commerce 

 were issued; annual enumerations of population were undertaken 

 fi-om 1751, and of cattle from 1770. A list of factories Avas com- 

 menced in 1772; six years later, reports of harvests; and in 1782 of 

 the number of ships. Statistics were also collected relating to the 

 taxes, justice, military, and educational affairs. 



2. Comparative Statistics. — Tlie preceding discloses what had 

 been achieved in Avhat may be called official administrative statistics. 

 They afforded grounds for a comparison for tlie same teiTitoiy of one 

 epoch with another. There is, hoAvever, anothei- and wider point of 

 view to be taken in matters statistical — viz., that which compares 

 such developments with those taking place in other countries, either 

 contemporaneously, or at correspondmg periods of development, and 

 also with causes not <nily of change m the one country with the lapse 

 of time, but also of the differences tvetAveen one country and another. 

 Conring had required not only a description of the on, but also 

 of the causal connection StoVt, of Aristotle, distinguished in time and 

 sp-ace. He analyses causes as the — 



(i.) Causa materialis, the population and its energies Avith the 

 land and its productivity. 



(ii.) Causa flnalis, prosperity and its attainment. 



