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New Tendencies in Economic History
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2024
Extract
When I was at the lycée, I listened with passion to the lessons of my history professor and I eagerly enlarged upon his lessons by doing a great deal of reading. On the other hand, I disliked mathematics. For me, equations, theorems and logarithms were no more than cumbersome baggage for the historian I aspired to become. Worse than that, it was an obstacle which inevitably I had to surmount in order to obtain my baccalauréat. Having surmounted the obstacle, I simbolically sold my table of logarithms, for had I not freed myself forever of that which for too long had been a nightmare?… Now, about twelve years later, without my ever having deviated from my original course, I find myself once again confronted with mathematics. Of the same sort? Certainly not. What I am now confronted with is infinitely more complicated and beyond my comprehension as I lack the basis which I erstwhile ignored. What then has happened? Why is it that the historian that I became in the meantime now needs mathematics today?
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- Notes and Discussion
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- Copyright © 1967 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
References
1 Cf. the examples recently proposed here in this review by Dom J. Froger, "The Electronic Machine at the Service of Humanistic Studies," Diogenes, No. 52 (Winter 1965), pp. 104-142.
2 Fernand Braudel, "Histoire et sciences sociales: La longue durée," in An nales, 13 (1958), pp. 725-753.
3 Today it is called Annales. Economies — Sociétés — Civilisations, a bi-month ly review by Fernand Braudel, Georges Friedman and Charles Morazé.
4 Lucien Febvre, Combats pour l'Histoire, Paris, 1953 (a collection of earlier Combats).
5 The acts of these congresses constitute precious collections of contributions to this reunion: Première Conférence internationale d'histoire économique, Stock holm MCMLX, Paris, La Haye (Mouton) 1960. Deuxième Conférence internatio nale d'histoire économique, Aix-en-Provence 1962, Paris, La Haye 1962. The acts of the third Congress are being printed and preparations are being made for the fourth Congress in 1968.
6 Most often they are articles or groups of articles appearing in reviews. A few will be cited later on but here I wish to point out the significant contribu tion of Robert W. Fogel, "The Reunification of Economic History with Economic Theory," American Economic Review, LV (1965), pp. 82-98; and the special issue dedicated to the problems we are concerned with here published in the new Italian review, Quaderni storici delle Marche, Ancona (gennaio 1967).
7 Cf. Jean-François Bergier and Luigi Solari, Pour une méthodologie des scien ces économiques. Deux leçons inaugurales. (Histoire économique et économétrie), Genève 1965 (Public. de la Faculté des Sciences économiques et sociales de l'Uni versité de Genève, vol. XVII).
8 Cf. for example Frédéric Mauro, "Towards an Intercontinental Model: Eu ropean Overseas Expansion between 1500 and 1800," Economic History Review, 1967, p. 1-17.
9 L. Febvre. Pour une histoire à part entière, Paris, 1962. The title of this posthumous collection of articles and essays is not his but it is in his spirit.
10 The number of works of economic history has not stopped growing, in pro portion, in the course of the last fifteen years.
11 Paraphrased from Barry E. Supple, "Has the Early History of Developed Countries any Current Relevance?," American Economic Review, LV (1965), p. 101.
12 Cf. the related precise and pertinent comments of Witold Kula, "Alcuni aspetti della collaborazione fra storici ed economisti," Problemi storici della indu strializzazione e dello sviluppo, Urbino 1965 (Publ. dell'Università di Urbino, Se rie di economia, vol. VI). This essay by the eminent Polish historian gave much direction to this present reflection.
13 Annales, 18 (1963), p. 103.
14 Cf. for example the ferocious, but a little gratuitous, opinion of Douglass C. North, "The State of Economic History," American Economic Review, LV (1965), pp. 86-91.
15 Jean-François Bergier and Luigi Solari, "Histoire et élaboration statistique. L'exemple de la population de Genève au XVe siècle," Mélanges Antony Babel, t. I, Genève 1963, pp. 197-225.
16 Jean Delumeau et collaborateurs, Le mouvement du port de Saint-Malo, 1681- 1720. Bilan statistique, Paris 1966.
17 I. D. Koual'cenko and V. A. Ustinov, "Les calculateurs électroniques ap pliqués aux études historiques: la vie rurale en Russie au XIXe siècle," Voprosy Istorii (1964), translated in Annales, 20 (1965), pp. 1128-1149.
18 Research in progress.
19 Cf. the examples given by Robert Fogel, art. cit.
20 Many of these have been collected in one volume entitled Introduction à l'histoire quantitative, Genève 1965.
21 Cf. J.-F. Bergier, "Situazione e problemi attuali della storia economica," Quaderni storici delle Marche, 4 (gennaio 1967), pp. 5-22: and the criticism of two particularly qualified historians: Pierre Chaunu, "Histoire quantitative ou histoire sérielle," Cahiers Vilfredo Pareto, 3 (1964), pp. 165-176; and Pierre Vi lar, "Pour une meilleure compréhension entre économistes et historiens. ‘Histoire quantitative' ou économie rétrospective?," Revue historique, 233 (1965), pp. 293-312.
22 It was presented in 1964 during the annual conference of the American Eco nomic Association. The reports presented on this occasion have been published in the American Economic Review, LV (1965). Many of them were reprinted in Ita lian in the number of Quaderni storici delle Marche which I have cited above.
23 Cf. R. Fogel, art. cit.