Comment by BlueTemplar

Ultimately, whether one thinks that having more volume of and more or less fragmented statistics is good or bad depends on their opinion of the State.

Olivier Ray wrote a great book about the history of statistics : Quand le monde s’est fait nombre (fr)

https://archive.org/details/OlivierReynombre/

https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/les-chemin....

https://www.fnac.com/a9931250/Olivier-Rey-Quand-le-monde-s-e...