take accurate statistics
of population, births and deaths. These begin by the middle of the
fifteenth century, but are rare until the middle of the sixteenth, when
they become frequent. Notwithstanding war and pestilence the numbers
of inhabitants seemed to grow steadily, the apparent result in the
statistics being perhaps in part due to the increasing rigor of the
census. Herewith follow specimens of the extant figures: The city of
Brescia had 65,000 in 1505, and 43,000 in 1548. During the same
period, however, the people in her whole territory of 2200 square miles
had increased from 303,000 to 342,000. The city of Verona had 27,000
in 1473 and 52,000 in 1548; her land of 1200 square miles had in the
first named year 99,000, in the last 159,000. The kingdom of Sicily
grew from 600,000 in 1501 to {456} 800,000 in 1548, and 1,180,000 in
1615. The kingdom of Naples, without the capital, had about 1,270,000
people in 1501; 2,110,000 in 1545; the total including the capital
amounted in 1600 to 3,000,000. The republic of Venice increased from
1,650,000 in 1550 to 1,850,000 in 1620. Florence with her territory
had 586,000 in 1551 and 649,000 in 1622. In the year 1600 Milan with
Lombardy had 1,350,000 inhabitants; Savoy in Italy 800,000; continental
Genoa 500,000; Parma, Piacenza and Modena together 500,000; Sardinia
300,000; Corsica 150,000; Malta 41,000; Lucca 110,000. The population
of Rome fluctuated violently. In 1521 it is supposed to have been
about 55,000, but was reduced by the sack to 32,000. After this it
rapidly recovered, reaching 45,000 under Paul IV (1558), and 100,000
under Sixtus V (1590). The total population of the States of the
Church when the first census was taken in 1656 was 1,880,000.

[Sidenote: Spain]

The final impression one gets after reading the extremely divergent
estimates of the population of Spain is that it increased during the
first half of the century and decreased during the latter half. The
highest figure for the increase of population during the reign of
Charles V is the untrustworthy one of Habler, who believes the number
of inhabitants to have doubled. This belief is founded on the
conviction that the wealth of the kingdom doubled in that time. But
though population tends to increase with wealth, it certainly does not
increase in the same proportion as wealth, so that, considering this
fact and also that the increase in wealth as shown by the doubling of
income from