Published tabulations freeze the assembled numerical facts of a nation in cold print. The tables exhibit regularities from year to year. Can that new kind of thing, a statistical law of human nature, be far behind? Yes and no. It depends where you are. The Prussia that overthrew Napoleon created a conception of society that resolutely resisted statistical generalization. It gathered precise statistics to guide policy and inform opinion, but any regularities they might display fell far short of laws of society. The Prussians created a powerful bureau but failed to achieve the idea of statistical law. That was left for the France that survived Napoleon (‘If you want to attract the attention of the emperor, just recite some statistics’).

Statistical law needed two things. One was the avalanche of printed numbers that occurred throughout Europe. Without the post-war bureaucracies there would have been no tabulations in which to detect law-like regularity.