252 CHEAPNESS OF BOOKS. [CHAP. XXXIX. 



for native authors to obtain a price capable of remunerating them 

 highly, as well as their publishers. But such is not the case. 

 Very large editions of Prescott s &quot; Ferdinand and Isabella,&quot; and 

 of his &quot; Mexico,&quot; and &quot; Peru,&quot; have been sold at a high price ; 

 and when Mr. Harper stated to me his estimate of the original 

 value of the copyright of these popular works, it appeared to me 

 that an English author could hardly have obtained as much in 

 his own country.* The comparative cheapness of American 

 books, the best editions of which are by no means in small 

 print, seems at first unintelligible, when we consider the dearness 

 of labor, which enters so largely into the price of printing, paper, 

 and binding. But, first, the number of readers, thanks to the 

 free-schools, is prodigiously great, and always augmenting in a 

 higher ratio even than the population ; and, secondly, there is a 

 fixed determination on the part of the people at large to endure 

 any taxation, rather than that which would place books and 

 newspapers beyond their reach. Several politicians declared to 

 me that not only an income tax, but a window tax, would be 

 preferred ; and &quot; this last,&quot; said they, &quot; w r ould scarcely shut out 

 the light from a greater number of individuals.&quot; The duty on 

 paper, in the United States, is trifling, when compared to that 

 paid in Great Britain. Mr. Chambers informs us, that the 

 Government duty of 5000Z., paid by him for his Miscellany, in 

 twenty volumes, was equal in amount to the whole profits of that 

 publication. The cost of advertisements, in America, is also 

 small. One of my American friends sent over to a London 

 publisher 250 copies of his work, charging him 4s. 6d. each. 



* A letter dated April 15, 1849, was lately shown me from the Harpers, 

 with permission to make known its contents, in which they mentioned, that 

 having been authorized by Mr. Macaulay to publish in America his &quot; His 

 tory of England,&quot; they had printed six editions at various prices varying 

 from four dollars to fifty cents (sixteen shillings and sixpence to two shillings) . 

 At the expiration of the first three months, they had sold 40,000 copies, and 

 other booksellers who had issued independent editions had sold about 20,000 ; 

 so that 60,000 copies had been purchased in the United States at a time 

 when about 13,000 had been disposed of by Longman and Co., in London, 

 at the price of 11. 12s. each. As the cheap American editions were only 

 just brought into the market at the date of this letter, the principal sale of 

 the book was but commencing. 



