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This essay explores the material imperatives of nineteenth-century statistical ambition, at a time when the nature of paper itself underwent rapid change. It expands the concept of paper technologies to include knowledge about the materials themselves, as well as the infrastructures, techniques, and agreements that made it possible for the right kind of paper to be made available for particular purposes. Taking the production of the forms for the Prussian census as a case in point, it argues that the enumeration effort of Prussian census statisticians went far beyond designing a form, collecting information, noting and compiling figures, or creating tables. Paper knowledge to define and control the material substance of the forms mattered as much as political impetus and statistical methods in getting the census right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper was already being used in southwestern Germany before the first paper mills began production there in the late 14th century. But it was the establishment of a local paper industry that made the still relatively new writing material available in large quantities. The demand for paper made the operation of a paper mill seem profitable, and the increased supply of paper in turn fueled the rise in writing. At the end of the Middle Ages, paper thus became the material basis of a media evolution that extended far into modern times. But how was the new writing material produced? The new craft of papermaking differed significantly from the production of parchment, the traditional writing material, in terms of equipment, raw materials, capital requirements, and working methods. Nevertheless, papermaking could use already existing infrastructures, especially in the field of energy supply by waterwheels. This article examines the specific characteristics of the new craft using the example of the German southwest, where numerous paper mills were established in the 15th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]