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28 - The British book in North America
from IV - THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET
- By James Green
Edited by Michael F. Suarez, SJ, University of Virginia, Michael L. Turner, Bodleian Library, Oxford
Book:

The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain

Published online:

28 September 2010

Print publication:

29 October 2009, pp 544-559
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Summary

Throughout the colonial period, most books read in America were British, as was to be expected in a mercantilist colonial system; however, in the first half of the eighteenth century, the London book trade paid little attention to the colonies. In the second half of the century the book trade awoke to the potential of the American market, just as it was slipping away. Some American publishers offered Canadian booksellers discounts of 30-40 per cent, which alleviated the burden of a 30 per cent duty. This made American reprints of British books competitive with British imports, at least in some regions, and it encouraged Canadians to buy American editions of American authors as well, notwithstanding frequent warnings from civil and religious authorities about their pernicious effects. The legal and economic barriers to book production in Canada before the 1820s were much stronger than they had been in the lower thirteen colonies before 1776.

23 - Distribution – the case of William Tayler
from III - SERIAL PUBLICATION AND THE TRADE
- By Michael Turner
Edited by Michael F. Suarez, SJ, University of Virginia, Michael L. Turner, Bodleian Library, Oxford
Book:

The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain

Published online:

28 September 2010

Print publication:

29 October 2009, pp 466-478
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This chapter talks about William Tayler who was to be a key player in the information networks of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Beginning with the imprint of John Pendred's Vade mecum of 1785, it attempts to identify Tayler, look at possible antecedents, describe the scope of his activities, and explain the succession of the enterprise, placing it in a historical context. The earliest evidence so far found connecting Tayler with the Warwick Court address is in the land tax assessments where his name first appears in 1784 and continues there until his retirement in 1813. The authors have seen it given in the imprint and content of Pendred's book in 1785, but several later documents imply, or actually state, that 1786 was the year in which the Warwick Court business was established.

26 - Printing and publishing 1557–1700: constraints on the London book trades
from THE BUSINESS OF PRINT AND THE SPACE OF READING
- By D. F. Mckenzie, University of Oxford
Edited by John Barnard, University of Leeds, D. F. McKenzie, University of Oxford
With Maureen Bell, University of Birmingham
Book:

The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain

Published online:

28 March 2008

Print publication:

14 November 2002, pp 553-567
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In London by the middle of the sixteenth century, the structure of labour in the book trades already had a long history. There is good evidence that in one form or another a mystery of stationers responsible for the commercial production of manuscripts had been formally constituted as a brotherhood by 1403. It is worth stressing that the labour records of the printing and bookselling trades from the mid-sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century probably represent the fullest account by far of any workforce in early modern England. A book printed for the author might run to 100 copies, probably the minimum for which it was worth going to a printer as distinct from a scribe. The effects of the Licensing Acts are only partly reflected in the imprimaturs and entries in the Stationersʾ Register. Only fifty-two books bear some form of licence.

32 - The English provinces
from BEYOND LONDON: PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, RECEPTION
- By John Barnard, University of Leeds, Maureen Bell, University of Birmingham
Edited by John Barnard, University of Leeds, D. F. McKenzie, University of Oxford
With Maureen Bell, University of Birmingham
Book:

The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain

Published online:

28 March 2008

Print publication:

14 November 2002, pp 665-686
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Summary

The relationship between the London book trade and the provinces was for most of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries conditioned by the power of members of the London Stationers' trade in controlling printing and distribution. The main role of the provincial book trade in England and Wales from 1557 to 1695 was the distribution of vernacular books printed and published in London and the sale of school books in Latin, printed either in London or abroad. The importation of Bibles and psalms printed more cheaply abroad was a long-standing problem for the London Company. The London trade has preoccupied most historical accounts of the press in England from 1557 to 1695. Together with the emergent trade with the American colonies, the establishment of clear and increasingly reciprocal distribution networks throughout the English provinces in these years.

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