Le parc cycliste français des origines à nos jours — L’Officiel du cycle, 1 October 1955, Bicycle Tax Plates by Year

From L’Officiel du cycle, du motocycle et du camping, 1 October 1955, N° 20, the paper’s special number before the Salon du Cycle at the Porte de Versailles, page 126: LE PARC CYCLISTE FRANCAIS DES ORIGINES A NOS JOURS: table of French bicycle tax plates sold each year from 1898 to 1954, peak near 12 million machines in 1951. The table is transcribed in full as printed, year by year, with its heading; the commentary is summarized in Ebykr’s words.

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LE PARC CYCLISTE FRANÇAIS
DES ORIGINES A NOS JOURS

(Tableau dressé d’après le produit de la « taxe sur les vélocipèdes »)

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The introduction says that readers found in this issue (page 63) the official and complete table of the French cycle stock by département, and that the national statistic by year of the same stock is now given from its origins, 1898 to 1954 inclusive; 1932 does not appear in the table because the « plaque » (tax plate) was compulsory for only part of that year. The figures are those of the statistics of the Ministère des Finances (Direction des Impôts indirects) on the sale of plates, stamps or tax labels. They are minimums, since the number of cyclists not paying the tax has always been large, estimated at up to a quarter more than the official figures. The « effectifs » have doubled five times: from 1898 to 1900; from 1900 to 1907; from 1907 to 1920; from 1920 to 1938; and from 1923 to 1949. The maximum was reached in 1951, with nearly 12 million machines. The years that marked declines, of very varied size, were 1915, 1928, 1929, 1933, 1934, 1939, 1940, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954.]

Années — Totaux

1898 — 483.414
1899 — 838.856
1900 — 975.878
1901 — 1.106.768
1902 — 1.191.554
1903 — 1.310.223
1904 — 1.520.458
1905 — 1.683.723
1906 — 1.790.679
1907 — 2.059.740
1908 — 2.244.594
1909 — 2.471.040
1910 — 2.697.406
1911 — 2.980.985
1912 — 3.168.521
1913 — 3.477.973
1914 — 3.552.474
1915 — 1.886.874
1916 — 1.949.646
1917 — 2.030.326
1918 — 2.230.901
1919 — 3.229.315
1920 — 4.308.129
1921 — 4.345.714
1922 — 5.302.474
1923 — 5.837.923
1924 — 6.370.644
1925 — 6.763.354

Années — Totaux

1926 — 7.112.818
1927 — 8.583.728
1928 — 6.818.407
1929 — 6.767.058
1930 — 6.820.027
1931 — 7.123.341
1933 — 7.054.485
1934 — 6.968.564
1935 — 7.063.689
1936 — 7.568.139
1937 — 8.094.903
1938 — 8.788.040
1939 — 8.945.960
1940 — 7.430.520
1941 — 10.049.210
1942 — 10.711.808
1943 — 10.513.429
1944 — 9.274.196
1945 — 8.306.166
1946 — 8.817.325
1947 — 9.645.151
1948 — 10.703.139
1949 — 11.893.380
1950 — 11.866.799
1951 — 11.914.904
1952 — 11.806.498
1953 — 11.278.844
1954 — 10.560.720

[A full-page ruled panel of text and figures, with no drawing or photograph. A thin black rule frames the whole page. The title is set across the head in large heavy sans-serif capitals over two centered lines, with the subtitle below it in italic sans-serif lower case and a short centered rule beneath. The introduction is set in italic roman type with a decorative italic initial “D” at the start, in four justified paragraphs. A double horizontal rule then opens a table in two columns separated by a double vertical rule, each headed “Années” and “Totaux” with a short dash under each heading, and each row joining the year to its total with a line of dots, the totals set with full stops between thousands and aligned at the right. The left column runs from 1898 to 1925 and the right from 1926 to 1954. No firm name, address or artist signature appears.]