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Papermaking apparently originated in China about two centuries before the Christian Era. Arabs learned the art in the eighth century and diffused it along North Africa, whence it spread into Spain in the twelfth century, into Italy in the thirteenth, and into France either near the beginning or near the middle of the fourteenth century. Around 1700 the French economy was in the middle of a protracted period of stagnation, and the paper industry was especially depressed. Several intendants stated at that time that papermaking had greatly declined over the past two decades, and the newly established Council of Trade learned from the survey it ordered in 1701 that the number of active mills was everywhere much smaller than formerly. Most of the evidence the author has sketched in this article reveals a direct correlation between the industry's expansion and the relaxation of direct governmental controls in France. After recovering from a long period of depression at the end of the seventeenth century, papermaking perhaps doubled its output between 1720 and 1789, with most of the growth coming after 1750.

Wright's model for the effects of random fluctuations in gene frequency in a population of fixed size is generalized to randomly fluctuating population size, and treated from the viewpoint of G. Malécot, using a martingale convergence theorem. The gene frequency approaches a limit, whose value depends on the actual realization, or history, of the process; that is, convergence is with probability one (or: almost surely) in statistical language. The limit does not necessarily represent a state of fixation of either allele; in particular, the limiting probability distribution is not necessarily trivial. For the special case of deterministically varying population size, a necessary and sufficient condition for such non-triviality is given.

The article discusses researches conducted by economists Paul A. David, Warren J. Scoville and Earl J. Hamilton. Researcher Stanley Engerman in his discussion on David's article suggests that his article represents the most thorough study in the debate concerning American economic growth between 1800 and 1840. It is based both on new time series not previously utilized and upon the resourceful application of available data to clarify certain key points. Another researcher Ross M. Robertson while discussing Scoville's article finds his article on the whole persuasive. Robertson certainly has no quarrel with his quantitative inferences, nor for that matter with his description of French governmental regulation in the eighteenth century. He was not altogether convinced of the direct correlation between the paper industry's expansion and the relaxation of direct governmental controls that Scoville alleges. Perhaps Scoville's more extended publications on this subject will elucidate this relationship.

The article throws light on the psychology of attitudes and gives insight into one aspect of newspaper behavior. An analysis of the rumors regarding communist leader Joseph Stalin's real or pretended illness in thirty newspapers in Paris, France revealed that the papers tended to publish rumors that arced with their political attitudes. Anti-communist papers published rumors stressing Stalin's illness and a crisis in Russia; communist papers ignored the subject or carried rumors denying the illness and crisis. Studies such as this might be used as a test for listing and grouping papers according to their political attitudes. Studies have been made repeatedly showing that the news content of newspapers is influenced by their editorial political attitudes. Less attention has been paid to the question of susceptibility to editorial manipulation. The collection of all rumor echoes in daily newspapers was undertaken during a period of four months. All news items, which had a particular character of vagueness, lack of authority regarding their source or outright improbability, were included regardless of whether or not rumor as a source was specifically mentioned.

The article discusses loan evaluation in France with commentary on the paper "Financial and Statistical Analysis for Commercial Loan Evaluation: A French Experience" by Edward I. Altman, Michel Margaine, Michel Schlossur, and Pierre Vernimmen. A troubled sector of France is examined in this paper to aid in the development of a model which determines the credit worthiness of commercial loan applicants. Traditional financial statement analysis and statistical analysis are combined during the research.

During and after the first World War, France, like many other belligerents, failed to meet her current budgetary expenditure from the revenues arising from taxation. The result of the inflation created many problems for the business man. Depending upon the attitude one holds with reference to the quantity theory of money, inflation either created these problems through its effect in bringing about a very rapid increase in prices, or these problems, created by other economic processes, than by action on prices, finally resulted in a marked increase in prices. French accounting theoreticians had the advantage of the earlier German experience and some of the new accounting methods proposed were but adaptations of German inflation accounting theory and practice. The elaboration of these methods by both French and German accounting theorist constitutes a definite contribution to general accounting theory. An understanding of the principles involved may help in settling some of the controverted questions of principle which attract the attention of accountants.

The article focuses on the initiative of scientist Leo Szilard to encourage physicists in America, England, France and Denmark to deter publication of papers related to atomic energy. It is indicated that his paper on the possibility of keeping a chain reaction in a system consisted of graphite and uranium was the first one withheld, as requested by the government. After the war, he was the one of the people who interfered with the publication of the Symth Report, since he felt that it will risk national security.

The article offers news briefs related to the study of French history. The XIth International Congress of the Historical Sciences was held in Stockholm, Sweden from August 21-28, 1960. In the sessions of the International Commission for the History of State Assemblies two papers dealing with the history of France were presented. In 1960 a considerable number of Americans active in the field of French history were in Paris, France. The 1961 Conference of Society for French Historical Studies is planned to be held in Princeton.

On November 26, 1936, the Popular Front Ministry of France, of which Leon Blum was President of the Council, submitted to the Chamber of Deputies a series of proposed laws which would have completely changed the regulations regarding the press. With only slight modifications the Chamber accepted the proposals, but Senate amendments removed the bill's teeth, and a deadlock ensued between the two houses of the French parliament. This deadlock remained unbroken until establishment of government by decree. Subsequently several attempts were made to secure passage of bills which embodied certain features of the Blum proposals, or which in some other manner suggested changes in the existing press regulations, but they too were either rejected or postponed. To a considerable extent, press susceptibility to venality results from the fact that it is very difficult for a French journal to be a paying concern by using merely ordinary channels of revenue. Low prices for daily papers have become traditional in France, but, more important than that, advertising has never developed into the gold mine for the press that it has become in the United States and in England.

This article discusses the educational sociology of sociologist Émile Durkheim. It is the purpose of this paper to outline some ideas of Durkheim on education and to show how they are closely linked with his sociological thought. It can be no more than an introduction to a subject upon which the writer is preparing a more substantial work. None of the educational writings of Durkheim has yet been published in England. In fact most of them were only published posthumously in France. Some notes on the most important of them are given at the end of this paper. The majority of them were prepared in the form of lectures and are listed in order of the dates on which the course was first given and not according to the date of publication which is separately recorded. There are many lectures still existing in manuscript form. It was thought best to give quotations in the following pages in English and the translations are those of the writer except where otherwise noted as coming from existing translations. Moreover, this paper will conclude with a brief outline of four major functions of educational sociology which are based on practical principles in line with Durkheim's methodology. These functions are the determination of the present social facts of education and their sociological function, determination of the relation of education to social and cultural change, comparative sociology of education and the study of the school itself as a social group and in relation to other social groups.

This article compares the efficiency of the coal-fired steam-generated electricity in Great Britain, the U.S. and France in 1970. The authors selected this industry for close examination because it had experienced rapid technological progress, its output is homogeneous and the data available are comparatively good. They found that the average level and rate of growth of fuel productivity in Great Britain industry were less than in France and in the U.S. The authors were careful to state, however, that technological backwardness was not the only interpretation of this result. They were aware that partial productivity measures could be very misleading because the contribution of other inputs, particularly capital, is ignored. Furthermore, this paper shows that the percentage increase in output in Great Britain from 1949-63 was higher than that in France and in the U.S., while the percentage increase in capital, measured by generating capacity, was much lower than in France or the US. This difference could be interpreted as implying that the productivity of capital in Great Britain industry was rising relatively to that in France and in the U.S. and thus that the industry in Great Britain was technologically forward. However, there are other interpretations, because capital productivity is also a partial measure of productivity. Thus, this paper suggests that there is a need a measure of productivity which reflects the simultaneous influence of all inputs and output and a production function provides such a measure. This article also estimates production functions for this industry.

The article presents information on features of Bank of France policy. One of the purposes in forming the Bank of France in 1800 was to make credit generally available at low rates of interest. The Bank admitted that it rationed credit in periods of tight money but it insisted that despite accusations to the contrary, that it administered rationing impartially. The rate of 5 per cent, established in the fall of 1814, was continued until June 1, 1819, for one-month paper and until February 1, 1820, for longer paper. Periodically the suggestion was made in the Bank parlors that the discount rate be changed, but the Bank officials developed a theory to justify a stable rate. After many months of discussions on whether to reduce the Bank rate, a rise in the market rate settled the issue and according to Bank officials demonstrated the wisdom of long deliberations. It was suggested that a reduction of the Bank rate would attract more and better bills and would be advantageous to the stockholders as well as to the public.

On the basis of interviews with French civil servants the article investigates the controversial question of whether the extensive administrative rule making in the Fourth Republic has limited pressure group influence or whether the direct impact of the groups has impinged on administrative autonomy. It is found that the group-bureaucracy relationship differs from agency to agency, but also that certain administrative patterns quite generally increase the access of organized interests to authoritative decision making. The search for developing standards by which to determine "the public interest" has been affected by the postwar civil service reforms and by the progressive amalgamation of the public and the private sector of the economy. The paper concludes with an examination of the corporatist and technocratic implications of certain new concepts of administrative responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on several meetings related to management sciences. An International Symposium on Long Range Planning for Management will be held in Paris, France, September 20-24, 1965. The Third Annual Conference of the Computer Personnel Research Group will be held in Saint Louis, Missouri on June 17-18, 1695. The first International Conference on Programming and Control will be held in Colorado, April 15-16, 1965.

The article presents information on the proceedings of the International Scientific Commission on the Family's second international seminar that was held in Rennes, France during April 10-13, 1969. The central theme was "The Images and Counter-Images of Young Families." Participants who presented their papers during the seminar included: Clio Presvelou, John Mogey and Bernard Farber.

This article presents information on public rules for private accounting in France in 1673 and 1807. As per the rules of Ordinance of 1673 some designated classes of `business men were required to "keep books." Public regulation, "on paper" at least, extended to the making of rules as to the books to be kept, forms to be observed in the making of entries, authentication by a public official as a means to the prevention of the crudest kind of falsifications, the making of periodic inventories, and the preservation of correspondence. The rules for authentication of the books of exchange dealers and bankers pear a little more strict than those for the authentication of the books of tradesmen and merchants. However as per the accounting rules of commercial code 1807 every business man was required to have a journal which presents day by day his accounts receivable and payable, the operations of his business, acceptances and endorsements of commercial paper, and in general everything which he receives and pays, under whatever head it may be.

The article presents several miscellaneous information related to political economy. The sixth volume of book "Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Political Science" will include a collection of papers on the history of cooperation in the U.S. A report on bimetallic legislation in Europe has been submitted to the U.S. State Department by the U.S. Senate. A finance report from the U.S. Secretary of Treasury informs about the use of surplus in the purchase of government bonds. The French government has released the measures by which it has effected conversion of the French Franc.

Focuses on the Dreyfus affair in France and the foreign press. Trial and acquittal of Major Charles Walsin Esterhazy on charges that he was the real traitor in the affair; Emile Zola's trial for criminal libel; Role of the English paper 'Daily News.'

Discusses conflicts over rural political participation in the context of the French Revolution. Attitudes toward rural political participation, particularly of those of the 'Feuille villageoise,' a newspaper written especially for the villagers; Issues raised by the paper.

The article focuses on the negotiations of the Franco-Belgium military accord of 1920. The military relations of France and Belgium were of utmost importance because their joint power could be used as a defense against Germany. When the Franco-Belgium military accord was signed on October 27, 1920, it brought with it a storm of protests from anti-militarist Socialists like Flemings and others. With the increasing intensity of the protests, the accord was cancelled and it was decided that a policy which is solely and exclusively Belgian was required to govern the military affairs in Belgium.

The article reports on the research functions of the Atomic Development Authority(ADA). The papers presented by Australia, Britain, U.S., Canada, Poland and France suggest that research concerned with bombs or radioactive poisons should be confined to the laboratories of the ADA. Sir Charles Darwin proposes the construction of two laboratories in North America, two in Western Europe, one in the southern hemisphere, and one in the U.S.S.R. Each laboratory should have a staff of 100 scientists with $10,000 salary.

The life in Breton villages (in France) is generally regarded as based on a traditionally primitive economy, and representing the age-old social forms. In this paper an attempt has been made to show, by a statistical study of two villages, that not only the size and the composition of the family, as a social unit, are influenced by the economic structure of the society (which, as shown in a preceeding study of the economic structure of the two villages, does not indicate a homogeneous peasant economy), but also the nature and the extent of the dependance of the family upon the economic structure are profoundly affected by the degree of social division of labour and the type of exploitation of the land, the primary means of production, in the different areas concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper an attempt has been made to show that the economic structure of a society can be determined directly by taking account of its defined properties (that is, the economic structure reflects the way in which the means of production are owned and the social relations between men which result from their connection with the process of production), instead of selecting the most differentiating form to represent the economic structure from an indirect process of examining several socio-economic groupings recognized in a society. To study only the internal variations of a society, by keeping the external factors at a fairly constant level, the data for this study were collected from one socio-economically homogeneous area but with the two villages representing the two main variations of the state of the productive forces within the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses French trade history during the American war for independence, 1776-1783, in light of the Boulton and Watt papers in Great Britain. The hazards challenging 18th century merchants trading overseas; Entry of the 'Steam Engine Parliament' into the shipping business; The business of Bouton and Wattt, selling steam pumping engines to Cornish mine proprietors, in collaboration with John Wilkinson, the chief supplier of heavy castings, operating at Bersham iron works; The issue of Wilkinson supplying canons to France; The problem of shipping equipment to French industrialists during war-time controls; Watt's contact in government, William the second earl of Dartmouth; Vessels used to transport engines; Influence of brothers Jacques Constantin Perier and Augustin Charles Perier.

Two opposing hypotheses attempt to explain the effects of inflation upon business enterprise. The first maintains that business profits by inflation due to the rise in prices which it engenders. The second affirms that inflation is a grave danger to business, gutting enterprises of their working capital. The first of these two hypotheses has recently been attacked by a number of German and French accounting theorists who have attempted to demonstrate that the standard accounting calculation of profits does not give accurate results during periods of rapidly changing prices. The second hypothesis is indeed most seductive, but, unfortunately, it has never been verified by a positive study of the facts. The object of this study is to investigate quantitatively the extent to which the one or the other of these theories found application in the French inflation of 1919-1926 and to discover the net effects of inflation upon the financial position of French enterprises. Several factors such as reconstruction, tariffs, improved industrial techniques, have all played an important part in these changes.

The recent creation of a new form of business incorporation in France, same as the corresponding differentiation of forms in Germany and Great Britain, has followed the development of protective devices set up in the interest of the general public. First, in the historical view, one can witness the development of easy incorporation by mere procedure. Second, safeguards have been developed, applicable to all corporations, but safeguards which were particularly directed toward those problems which arise when there is an appeal to the general public for investment funds, safeguards for bond holders and other creditors against the whole proprietary group, and for shareholders against promoters and managers. Third, there has occurred a relaxation of control devices of the second class, a relaxation based on the idea that fewer safeguards are needed when the intra-corporate relations of the members are intimate and private. It is not the function of this paper to trace in detail the steps in this process of competition. Suffice it to say that two important processes took place, the one with respect to the utilization of the limited partnership, the other with respect to that of the corporation.

The study of family change during industrialization has been hindered by the lack of adequate historical data. This paper attempts to overcome this obstacle by further refining Coale-Burch measures that can be used with existing census data, It shows the validity of these measures for Prance, uses them to analyze the effects of land holding, agriculture, illiteracy, and dispersed settlement on household complexity, and then analyzes the effects of household complexity an fertility, migration, suicide, divorce, religiosity, and care for the aged during the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EDITOR'S NOTE: The two articles that follow seek to familiarize American sociologists with the writings of their counterparts in France in an area of interest that has been phrased somewhat differently in the two countries. They represent the product of a collaborative effort that came into being at the 1962 meeting of the International Seminar on Family Research, in Washington, D.C., with aid from the Committee on Socialization and Social Structure of the Social Science Research Council and from the Centre National de Ia Recherche Scientifique, Path, France. Although the focus of attention is on the French literature dealing with the interrelationships between person and society, both papers address themselves to similarities and differences in approach in the two countries. Both are being published in French (in the "Bulletin de Psychologie," Sorbonne, Path) as well as in English. it is hoped that these first steps toward a dialogue between workers in the two countries will contribute to an awareness of significant substantive research and of salient issues that will benefit from further discussion across national boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]