18 The Book-Trade. [Juxy, 
the paper is then printed and made into a book, when it is placed in the 
ublisher’s warehouse till the course of consumption calls itinto use. In 
the lighter literature of the day, which must necessarily be sold rapidly, if 
it is sold at all, this burthen is not severe, because the delay is not great. 
But in the great body of useful books—books of which the public scarcely 
hear, from their being seldom either advertised or reviewed—school-books, 
namely, of all kinds ; dictionaries; books of reference, &c. &c.—in these 
instances, and they exceed other publications as much in number as in 
importance, the duty on paper is a dead weight pressing upon the book- 
seller and his property, in a manner and to a degree which renders, we 
are persuaded, this one of the chief roots of the evils which have, of 
late, fallen upon the trade. ‘The great wholesale publishers have im- 
ynense numbers of this description lying in their warehouses. It is 
unavoidable that they should have them. On all this stock the duty has 
been already paid. ‘It is an outlay of so much capital, which, for the 
time, lies unproductive. And though for the direct outlay, the book- 
seller will of course take care to remunerate himself by the price of the 
book, if he can; yet for the delay, and the risk, we hold that he cannot do 
so thoroughly, inasmuch as the book would not bear a price sufficient to 
make up the whole difference between slow and quick return—which, 
as all mercantile men know, is one of the most important principles in 
commerce. 
Perhaps no business whatever requires so large a capital, in propor- 
tion to the returns, as that of a wholesale bookseller ; for, from the heavy 
charge of composition or setting up the types in printing, they are 
obliged to print at one time such an impression of a regular-selling 
book, as will take from four to five years im selling ; particularly books 
of education, dictionaries, &c. in which the type is small, or the print- 
ing close. The amount of goods insured from fire by one house in the 
trede, is not less than £300,000. ' 
This heavy stock, on which there is such vast outlay, was, we are con- 
vinced, the origin of that system of long-dated bills, which was ulti- 
mately carried to such an extravagant excess. And though, perhaps, the 
evils of this vicious system increased in a ratio more than the causes we 
have indicated rendered necessary, yet we think they are directly 
traceable_to those causes originally; for a system of bills of long date 
is surely the natural offspring of a system of great present outlay, 
_with distant return. The amount of the duty, and the circumstance of 
the duty being levied so much earlier than it could possibly be returned, 
in relation to the possible sale, caused the weight of ‘the outlay—and 
thence, as we take it, originated the long bills—the sudden check to 
which, from external causes, brought such accumulated ruin upon the 
trade. 
The duty upon advertisements is also very severe, as to amount, 
though the argument derived from the period of its being levied 
does not apply here. The amount, however, of this duty, is a most 
exorbitant tax upon literature, and one which, we really think, 
ought ‘to be diminished in a country which assumes to itself the 
distinetion of fostering the cultivation of letters. It is evident that 
publishers must advertise to a very great extent. It is the only 
means they have of making known the publication of works, and 
enters, ia a very large proportion, into the aggregate mass of their 
expenses, It is, manifestly, exceedingly difficult. to draw an average 
