Using a unique, comprehensive household-level dataset for a single French village, we study the process of modernization during a period of rapid institutional and demographic transformation. We document changes in fertility, mortality, literacy and intergenerational social mobility. The fall in fertility followed the French Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, and preceded the rise in education by several decades. Rising literacy followed an increase in the supply of schooling due to the Guizot Law. All these changes occurred in the absence of industrialization in and around the village. We conclude that institutional and cultural changes originating outside the village were likely the dominant forces accounting for its modernization.

我们使用一个法国村庄的独特，全面的家庭数据集，研究了在快速的制度和人口转变时期的现代化进程。我们记录了生育率，死亡率，识字率和代际社会流动性的变化。生育率的下降是在法国大革命和启蒙时代之后的，并且是在教育上升之前的几十年。由于吉佐特法律，识字率上升之后，学校的供应也有所增加。所有这些变化都是在村庄及其周围没有工业化的情况下发生的。我们得出的结论是，起源于村庄之外的制度和文化变革可能是解释其现代化的主要力量。