510. Benjamin Franklin and Chinese Statistics System

Only three years prior to the formal Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin, who had expressed his dissatisfaction with the British management of the colonies, worked to create an improved and more efficient management. In 1773, Benjamin Franklin expressed that he was deeply impressed by the effectiveness of the statistics system of the Chinese Imperial Court. He recorded in detail how local officials collected economic information and reported to the imperial court. From his letter to ThomasPercival, we know that Franklin learned that the Chinese provincial authority held accurate information on the population and the “Quantities of Provision produc’d.” The provincial authority then reported this information to China’s imperial court; in order that the imperial ministers “can thence foresee a Scarcity likely to happen in any Province, and from what Province it can best be supply’d in good time.” He then gave a detailed description of how the local officials had obtained farmers’ household information: “each House is furnish’d with a little Board to be hung without the Door during a certain time each Year, on which Board, is marked certain Words, against which the Inhabitant is to mark Number or Quantity.”

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