La diffusion de la bicyclette en France depuis un demi-siècle — L’Officiel du cycle, 6 October 1951, the Fiscal Plates 1898-1950

From L’Officiel du cycle, du motocycle et du camping, 6 October 1951, the paper’s special number for the 1951 Paris Salon du Cycle et du Motocycle and its 60th anniversary, page 20: the number of bicycles in France each year from 1898 to 1950, from the sale of fiscal plates. The table is transcribed in full; the summary is Ebykr’s.

— Page 1 —
LA DIFFUSION DE LA BICYCLETTE
EN FRANCE DEPUIS UN DEMI-SIÈCLE

(D’APRES LA VENTE DES MARQUES FISCALES)

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The italic introduction says the figures come from the statistics of the Ministère des Finances (Direction des Impôts Indirects) on sales of fiscal plates, stamps or vignettes. They are minimums, since many cyclists never paid the tax (an evasion estimated at a quarter on top of the official figures), but they show the almost constant spread of the bicycle across the country, which the paper credits to the producers and to the « vélocistes » who maintain and repair this enormous mass of cycles. The figures doubled four times: from 1898 to 1900, from 1900 to 1907, from 1907 to 1920 and from 1920 to 1938. The peak came in 1949, with nearly 12 million machines; the years of decline, of very different size, were 1915, 1928, 1929, 1933, 1934, 1939, 1940, 1943, 1944, 1945 and 1950.]

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

Années — Totaux —
1925 ………. 6.763.354
1926 ………. 7.112.818
1927 ………. 8.583.728
1928 ………. 6.818.407
1929 ………. 6.767.058
1930 ………. 6.820.027
1931 ………. 7.123.341
1932 ………. —
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 ………. 8.495.960
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 ………. 11.983.380
1950 ………. 11.866.663
1951 ………. ?

[No drawings or photographs. The whole item is set inside a single ruled frame: a two-line headline in bold sans-serif capitals, the subtitle in small capitals under a short rule, the italic introduction, then the table in two halves divided by a double vertical rule, each year followed by a dotted leader to its total. The year 1932 has a dash in place of a figure. The previous page’s advertisements show through the paper of this copy in reverse.]