ABSTRACT
Specialists in French economic history have always worked with figures since the days of Levasseur, Hauser and Mantoux: they could hardly do otherwise. But it was only after about 1932, with the publication of the major works of Simiand and Labrousse that the systematic use of measurement became virtually obligatory among historians. The 'price revolution', according to these historians, was the result of heightened demand, itself caused by a population increase and by the influx of precious metals from the mines of Mexico and Potosi. Nowadays the concept of growth has won its place in historiography. This basic contradiction – demand – supply, population – subsistence, population growth – gross product – which has, for the time being, provided the economic history of rural regions with a model of periodization in so far as it can be approximately mapped by quantified indicators.
