Emergence of an integrated city-system in France (XVIIth–XIXth centuries): Evidence from toolset in graph theory

ABSTRACT In this article, the authors discuss the emergence of an integrated city-system in France one century before the Industrial Revolution, starting from two different databases, the postal roads relays and the cities and towns populations, between 1632 and 1833. They first model historical distances, weighted by elevation and connectivity (measured as a conductance). A major transformation of inter-urban exchange space is then enlightened, with new roads systematically privileged in the northern part of France and the largest cities, but avoiding mountains. They then study territorial integration processes on two different scales: the national, with the diffusion of hubs (characterized by a high betweenness centrality) all over French territory, and the regional, with the emergence of regional city-systems (modeled by a Reilly equation) in the northern part of France. The role of medium-sized cities as necessary links for connecting local and national scales is emphasized in most results.