V22 



BOOK TRADE. 



were, for the first time, In 1545, two booksellers of i 

 this kind Steiger ami Boskopf. The books were 

 carried to Frankfort on the Maine to the fair. The 

 book fair at Leipsic did not become important until a 

 later period: in 1667, it was attended by nineteen 

 foreign booksellers. The Leipsic catalogue of books 

 appeared as early as 1600. 



The booksellers of the present day may be divided 

 into printers who sell their own publications, (they 

 have become rare), booksellers who sell the books 

 which liave been printed at their expense by others, 

 mi 1 those who keep for sale the publications of others. 

 The last have, usually, at the same time, publications 

 of their own, which they sell or excliange with others. 

 This trade is promoted, in Germany, chiefly by the 

 Ixwk fairs at Leipsic, of which the Easter fair is fre- 

 quented by all the booksellers of Germany, and by 

 those of some of the neighbouring countries, as of 

 France, Switzerland, Denmark, Livonia, in order to 

 settle their mutual accounts, and to form new con- 

 nexions. The German publisher sends his publica- 

 tions to tlie keeper of assortments, d condition, that is, 

 on commission for a certain time, after which the lut- 

 ter pays for what have been sold, and can return what 

 have not been sold. This is not so favourable for the 

 publisher as the custom in the French book-trade, 

 where tlie keeper of assortments takes the quantity 

 he wants at a fixed rate. In the German book-trade, 

 it is tlie practice for almost every house, either in the 

 country or abroad, which publishes or sells German 

 books, to have its agent at Leipsic, who receives and 

 distributes its publications. A., in Riga, who pub- 

 lishes a book calculated for the German trade, has 

 his agent, B., in Leipsic, to whom he sends, free of 

 expense, a number of copies of his publication, that 

 he may distribute the new work to all the booksellers 

 with whom he is connected, from Vienna to Ham- 

 burg, and from Strasburg to Konigsberg, each of 

 whom has his agent in Leipsic. Instructions are 

 also given as to the number of copies to be sent 

 to each. B. delivers those copies in Leipsic to 

 the agents, who send them every week/ or more 

 or less frequently, by the post, or by carriers, at the 

 expense of the receiver. C., in Strasburg, who finds 

 that he lias not received copies enough, writes for an 

 additional number of copies to his agent, D., in 

 Leipsic. D. gives this order to B., who delivers the 

 number wanted to D., to be transmitted to C. This 

 arrangement is advantageous to the German book- 

 trade as well as to Leipsic. The dealer receives every 

 thing free to Leipsic, and, as a great number of 

 packets, with books from all parts of Germany, arrive 

 there for him every week, he can have them packed 

 together and sent at once. The freight is thus much 

 less tlian if the packets were sent to him separately 

 from the different places, and the whole business is 

 simplified. The booksellers are also enabled to 

 agree with greater ease on a certain discount per 

 cent. 



London is the great centre of the British book- 

 trade ; the number of new publications that issue 

 from its presses being far greater tlian all that appear 

 in the rest of the empire. Within the course of the 

 lust forty years, however, many very important works 

 liave been published at Edinburgh : but the latter, 

 as well as those which appear at Oxford, Cambridge, 

 Glasgow, &c., are principally disposed of by tlie 

 London trade. The booksellers of Edinburgh, and ' 

 jf all the other provincial towns, have agents in Lon- 

 don to whom they consign a certain number of copies 

 of every work they publish ; and to whom, also, they 

 address their orders for copies of such new or old 

 vorks as-they have occasion for. The London book- 

 sellers, who act as agents for those in the country, 

 nre in the liabit of regularly despatching parcels to j 



their correspondents on the last day of rndi nvnith, 

 with the magazines and other monthly publications ; 

 but if any new work of interest appears in the interim, 

 or orders be received from the country that cannot be 

 conveniently deferred to Uie end of the month, a 

 parcel is immediately forwarded by coach. The 

 booksellers of Edinburgh and Dublin act as agents 

 for those of London, ana supply the Scottish ami Ir- 

 ish country trade with the metropolitan publications. 



The price of new works is fixed by the publishers, 

 who grant a deduction to the retail dealers, of from 

 20 to 25 per cent, on the price of quartos, and from 

 25 to 30 per cent, on i hat. of octavos, and those of 

 smaller size. The credit given by the publishers to 

 the retailers varies from seven to twelve months ; a 

 discount being allowed for prompt payment at tlie 

 rate of 5 per cent, per annum. 



M:: cciil loch calculates that about 1,500 volumes of 

 new publications (exclusive of reprints, pamphlets, and 

 periodical publications, not in volumes) are annually 

 produced in Great Britain : and, estimating the 

 average impression of each volume at 750 copies, we 

 have a grand total of 1,125,000 volumes ; the value 

 of which, if sold at an average publication price of 

 nine shilling's a volume, would be 506,250. The 

 number of reprinted volumes, particularly of school 

 books, is very great; and if to these we add the. 

 reviews, magazines, pamphlets, and all other publica- 

 tions, exclusive of newspapers, the total publication 

 value of the new works of all sorts and new copies 

 of old works, that are annually produced, may be 

 estimated at about 750,000. 



The old book trade carried on in Great Britain is 

 very extensive, and employs many dealers. The 

 price of old books depends very much on their condi- 

 tion ; but, independent of this circumstance, it is very 

 fluctuating and capricious ; equally good copies of tlie 

 same works being frequently to be had in some shops 

 for half or a third of what they can be bought for iit 

 others. 



The activity of the French press has been very 

 greatly increased since the downfall of Napoleon. 

 The count Daru, in a very instructive work, Notion* 

 Statistiques sur la Libraire, published in 1827, esti- 

 mated the number of printed sheets, exclusive of 

 newspapers, produced by the French press in 1816, 

 at 66,852,883; and in 1S25, at 128,011,483; and 

 the increase from 18^5, down to the present period 

 has been little if any thing inferior. The quality of 

 many of the works that liave recently issued from the 

 French press is also very superior; and it may be 

 doubted whether such works as the Biographic Uni- 

 verselle, the new and enlarged edition of the Art de 

 verifier lea Dates, in 08 volumes 8vo, and the two 

 octavo editions of Bayle's Dictionary, could have 

 been published in any other country. The greater 

 number of new French works of merit, or which it is 

 supposed will command a considerable sale, are im- 

 mediately reprinted in the Netherlands, or Switzer- 

 land, but principally in the former. To such an 

 extent has this piratical practice been carried, that it 

 is stated in the Requete presented by the trench 

 booksellers to government in 1828, that a single 

 bookseller in Brussels had, in 1825 and 1826, and the 

 first six months of 1827, reprinted 318,615 volumes 

 of French works. Having nothing to pay for copy- 

 right, these counterfeit editions can be afforded at a 

 lower price than those that are genuine. This is a 

 very serious injury to French authors and publishers, 

 not only by preventing the sale of their works in 

 foreign countries, but from the ease with which spu- 

 rious copies may be introduced into France. All the 

 French booksellers are brevetes, that is, licensed, and 

 sworn to abide by certain prescribed rules. This 

 regulation is justly complained of by the publishers, 





