By European standards, France is a truly old country; its population today (66M people) is barely three times what it was in 1700 (21M). By contrast, England we

By European standards, France is a truly old country; its population today (66M people) is barely three times what it was in 1700 (21M). By contrast, England went from 5M people to 53M today, or about ten times the size.