[Saugrain's censuses: genesis of a hypothesis]

Many historians of population have tried to determine the origins of the population statistics published in the Dénombrement du Royaume (1709) and in the Nouveau Dénombrement du Royaume (1720) by Claude Saugrain. J. Hussenet provides new developments; his main document is a manuscript kept in the Senate arkivs listing, at the time of Regency, more than 38,000 french settlements classified. The Dictionnaire géographique du Royaume de France seems to be the copy of a much older book commissioned by the Contrôle général des Finances. Claude Saugrain may have used it for his publication of 1709 and to a smaller extent for the one of 1720. A close examination of this document shows that the Contrôle général concern was to evaluate rather count the population.