In a postscript to his Recherches sur la population (1766), political arithmetician Louis Messance made the case for a positive association mortality and the price of wheat. The true author of the postscript was probably Jean-Baptiste François de la Michodière (1720 -- 97), Messance's mentor and employer. The calculations given in this paper offer tempered support for what is dubbed 'La Michodière's law’. There was indeed a correlation between prices and mortality in early eighteenth-century France; but La Michodière's own and other data imply that even then it was weaker and less mechanical than implied by some of his successors.
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Volume (Year): 13 (2006) Issue (Month): 2 (June) Pages: 183-194 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
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