La progression de la bicyclette en France depuis cinquante-cinq ans — L’Officiel du cycle, 19 September 1953, Tax-Stamp Sales from 1898 to 1952

From L’Officiel du cycle, du motocycle et du camping, 19 September 1953, N° 39, the paper’s Salon number du Cycle at the Porte de Versailles, page 163: ‘La progression de la bicyclette en France depuis cinquante-cinq ans’ from the sale of tax stamps (vignettes fiscales): table of machines taxed each year 1898 to 1952, peak near 12 million in 1951. The title, headings, captions and lists are transcribed as printed; the text is summarized in Ebykr’s words, and the page images carry it in full.

— Page 1 —
LA PROGRESSION DE LA BICYCLETTE
EN FRANCE DEPUIS CINQUANTE-CINQ ANS

d’après la vente des vignettes fiscales

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The figures below come from the statistics of the Ministère des Finances (Direction des Impôts Indirects) on the sale of plates, stamps or tax labels (vignettes fiscales). They are minimum figures, since the number of cyclists not paying the tax has always been large (estimated at up to a quarter beyond the official figures). Their great advantage is to show the almost constant progression of the bicycle’s spread across the country, a magnificent result due to the efforts of the producers as well as to those of the cyclists (the dealers, who are responsible for the upkeep and repair of this enormous mass of cycles). The “effectifs” have doubled: 1° from 1898 to 1900; 2° from 1900 to 1907; 3° from 1907 to 1920; 4° from 1920 to 1938; and from 1923 to 1949. The maximum was reached in 1951 with nearly 12 million machines. The years that marked setbacks (of very varied size) were 1915, 1928, 1929, 1933, 1934, 1939, 1940, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1950 and 1952; for this last year the magazine has elsewhere shown that the slight regression recorded is purely apparent.]

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
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 — 11.893.380
1950 — 11.866.799
1951 — 11.914.904
1952 — 11.806.498

[A full page of text and a table inside a ruled rectangular frame, text only with no drawing or signature. The two-line title stands in large light roman capitals, tightly set, with the subtitle “d’après la vente des vignettes fiscales” in bold italic below it and a short rule beneath. An italic introduction with a large ornamental italic capital L opens the text, followed by a table of two panels divided by a double vertical rule, each with the heads “Années” and “Totaux” and rows of years joined to their totals by dotted leaders; the table is closed by a double rule above its first row. The page number 163 sits in bold at the lower right outside the frame. A narrow strip of the facing sheet with a decorative wavy border shows along the left edge.]