Anthropometric history of the French Revolution in the Province of Orleans

Abstract

We estimate the trend in average height of the population of the French province Orleans from 1715 to the beginning of the 19th century using data on recruits who were drafted either through a lottery system or through general conscription. After controlling for age, residence, and occupation, we find a general decline in the biological standard of living in the decades before the French Revolution. The results support a Ricardian–Malthusian interpretation of the causes of the French Revolution. In the debate ‘Revolution de la misère ou de la prospérité’ our findings support the side which argues that the French Revolution was a culmination of a long-lasting economic malaise during the final phases of the Ancien Régime.

Introduction

How the French standard of living developed in the 18th century is still not entirely clear, leading to different interpretations of the French Revolution. One group of historians including Jaures (1901) and Lefebvre (1989) maintained that the French Revolution was a political event triggered by the economic prosperity of the 18th century and the resulting rise of the bourgeoisie. In contrast, a second group of historians that includes Mathiez (1922) and Labrousse (1944) saw the French Revolution as the product of a long-lasting economic malaiseduring the Ancien Régime that destabilized society. In recent years, a debate has emerged about Labrousse's (1933) suggestion that real wages decreased substantially in the second half of the 18th century (Weir, 1991, Daudin, 2004). This debate is mostly conducted in terms of real income, the classical measure of living standards. However, a number of problems are associated with this concept. First, nominal wages and prices were rarely recorded systematically in the 18th century. Moreover, many wages were paid in kind, making calculation of real wages even more difficult, and furthermore variations in unemployment are not accounted for as data on unemployment is unavailable (Lepetit and Sinarellis, 1995). Thus, estimates of real income have their limitations and are not likely to settle the debate on the course of living standards in the 18th century.

Instead of conventional indicators we use trends in French physical stature as a proxy measure of the “biological standard of living, in order to estimate the evolution of nutritional status, an important dimension of welfare (Komlos, 1989). Since food expenditure made up a large share of disposable income in the 18th century, the anthropometric method also enables us to draw tentative inferences about real income. The following study investigates the trend in the biological standard of living from 1715 to the turn of the 19th century and is an extension of Komlos’ (2003) study, in which he examined the biological standard of living in France during the period 1670–1760. He argued that heights declined indeed during the second half of the century thereby connecting to the ‘let them eat cake’ version of the storming of the Bastille, but pointed out at the same time that the diminution in height was not worse than in other parts of Europe, and also did not reach 17th century crisis levels. Thus, he inferred that French economic performance alone is an insufficient explanation for the outbreak of the political turmoil (Komlos, 2003). Similar studies exist for the birth cohorts of 1784–1902 (Weir, 1997) and 1780–1920 (Heyberger, 2005) but they do not pertain, in the main, to the pre-revolutionary period.