Note 812 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
A Venetian syndicate interested in France in 1566 estimated the population to be between fifteen and sixteen millions (Rel. vén., III, 149). I assume this estimate to be more reliable than most. According to Levasseur, economically France could support a population of 20,000,000 in the sixteenth century (Foville, “La population française,” Revue des deux mondes, November 15, 1891, 306).