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    5 68 The Publishers' Circular May 15,18 ...

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    THE LONDON BOOKSELLERS' ASSOCIATION IN 1...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    The Parchment Dealers Of The -« (Ttt^V T...

    I desirous of buying . During these twenty-four ; hours no Parisian dealers must buy nor

    traj ¦ veiling Parisian dealer dealers sell under , wholesal pains e or and retail penalties , to the usually imposed in such cases . At the

    expiration of the twenty-four hours the travelling merchant may freely sell his parchment and the Paris dealers may buy it .

    The third document , which bears date < 1291 , the Tuesday before the Festival of All Saints' ( the 30 th of October ) , formulates the

    regulations of the University applicable to parchment dealers . After a preamble founded on an axiom of the Canon Law that ' To watch

    often over the administration of justice is a fruit of Divine grace , ' and a relation of the deceptions too often practised by the dealers ,

    it goes on to decree that they must engage not to combine together to the disadvantage and detriment of the masters and scholars ; that

    I they must act with good faith between themselves in their purchases , and sell parchment without fraud to the masters and scholars ;

    ! that they must not go and meet dealers outside the fairs to buy parchment , nor buy parchment in skins for future years at their

    convenience , nor sell secretly by candle-light , nor agree with hawkers at fair time or any

    other time as to the prices to be demanded for parchment ; nor to purchase anywhere excepting at St . Mathurin ' s Convent or the public

    market . If parchment dealers buy parchi ment in the presence of a master or scholar who wishes to purchase JL he shall be allowed

    to take his part of the parchment at the trade price plus a commission of six deniers per pound to the parchment * dealer who had bought the

    • parchment . . Any dealer present has a * l this privilege . * The first day of the Fair of St . Lazarus the dealers shall not buy parchment

    until My Lord the King and My */ JL Lord the Archbishop of Paris as well as the Masters and Scholars shall have made provision X for

    themselves , unless the travelling merchants shall not have made their purchases before the appointed hour . The scholars must only buy for

    themselves or comrades and not to sell again . At fair time the University beadles will be sent to the fairs to see if the scholars or the

    parchment dealers commit any fraud in buying or selling . The dealers must consent to an inquiry being held by the delegates of the

    University as to the execution of , these regulations , no matter who may be the Rector for the time being . The fourth and last document

    we do not summarise , as it is only the oath of the parchmeitt dealers to obey the above regulations . *^\ y-w - ¦* - - '

    5 68 The Publishers' Circular May 15,18 ...

    5 68 The Publishers' Circular May 15 , 18 90

    The London Booksellers' Association In 1...

    THE LONDON BOOKSELLERS ' ASSOCIATION IN 1852 .

    History , we are often told , repeats itself , ¦ and only the other day we came across an

    i amusing ^ f ^ 0 ^^ f - ^ —— - ~ m - - — - g instance -w of the truth g - of this — ~ - assertion - ^ - - - — ----w ---- _~ - m- w in turning over the pages of an old volume of

    Household Words . Two or three closely printed columns of that journal are devoted to an account of a meeting of booksellers and

    authors which was held at 'Mr . Chapman s in

    The London Booksellers' Association In 1...

    the Strand' on the 4 th of May , 1852 . Charles Dickens was in the chair , and the meeting was

    called to take action with regard to the system of protected profits enforced by the London Booksellers' Association . The chairman made

    a characteristic speech , and declared himself on _ ¦ princi j— — ¦ — p - le - opposed m ~ - to any system qJ of exclu — — — ^ p » -

    sion ht to d be rest allowed riction ; the every ' free man exercise , he though of his t , oug

    thrift s-j and enterprise . ' Letters were read from Richard Cobden , John Stuart Mill , William

    Howitt , Leigh Hunt , Thomas Carlyle and W . E . Gladstone , all expressing a ' decided

    condemnation of the course taken by the Association' and of the existing arrangements of the book trade .

    As nearly forty years have elapsed since this interesting gathering was held , it may ,

    perhaps , be as well to state what happened almost in the exact words of Lord Campbell , Dean Milmanand Mr . Grotethe arbitrators

    to whom the dispute ' , between , the Association , and the retail booksellers was at length referred . The substance of the regulations

    which the Booksellers' Association attempted to force upon the trade were as follows : — Every bookseller keeping a shop within twelve

    miles of the General Post - Office was to become —nolens volens—a member of the Association . Each member was to receive a ticket entitling

    him to buy new books from the publishers . They in turn were to specify a retail price for each cop X y 1 / , and the trade price J . was to be about 30 per -L

    cent , less ; the booksellers were required to enter into an engagement not to allow their customers a larger discount than 10 per cent , from the

    retail price O . No bookseller who refused to enter into this arrangement was to be supplied with

    copies of new books , and any retail dealer caug ht tripp JL M . ing *_» was to forfeit his ticket and

    to be cut off from any further dealings in new books with the publishers . The arbitrators declared that such regulations i _> were

    -indefensible , and opposed to the freedom which ought to prevail in commercial transactions . It was next pointed out that the plan would lead in

    practice JL to vexatious and unwarrantable inquiries , and that the system was to a large extent one of coercion . ' Without the ticket

    testifying that the retail bookseller is qualified to deal with a publisher he cannot carry on his business as a vendor of new publications JL ,

    and thus the means by which he lives arc taken from him . ' The strong common-sense of Lord Campbell

    and his colleagues is shown in the effectual manner in which they disposed of the alleged ' peculiarities JL ' in the book trade . In answer .

    for instance , to the plea that since authors have protection ho those who circulate their works ought to possess the same privilege ,

    the obvious reply of the arbitrators was that the only protection given to authors ia copyright , and that is merely an extension to

    what K , A / a K-J man * writes of the protection % / which the law gives to other property of every description . The Association contended further that ,

    be thoug adva h nt the works l of circulated celebrated and authors sold without might regulations ageous of any y kind , yet the works of

    unknown and second-rate writers , ' however use-

• Citation
  • Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), May 15, 1890, page 568, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_15051890/page/18/