On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures by Charles Babbage (english books to improve english TXT) 📕

through their relatives, with those pursuits on which their

country’s greatness depends. The wealthier manufacturers and

merchants already mix with those classes, and the larger and even

the middling tradesmen are frequently found associating with the

gentry of the land. It is good that this ambition should be

cultivated, not by any rivalry in expense, but by a rivalry in

knowledge and in liberal feelings; and few things would more

contribute to so desirable an effect, than the abolition of all

such contracted views as those to which we have alluded. The

advantage to the other classes, would be an increased

acquaintance with the productive arts of the country an increased

attention to the importance of acquiring habits of punctuality

and of business and, above all, a general feeling that it is

honourable, in any rank of life, to increase our own and our

country’s riches, by employing our talents in the production or

in the distribution of wealth.

387. Another circumstance omitted to be noticed in the first

edition relates to what is technically called the overplus, which

may be now explained. When 500 copies of a work are to be

printed, each sheet of it requires one ream of paper. Now a ream,

as used by printers, consists of 21 1/2 quires, or 516 sheets.

This excess of sixteen sheets is necessary in order to allow for

‘revises’—for preparing and adjusting the press for the due

performance of its work, and to supply the place of any sheets

which may be accidentally dirtied or destroyed in the processes

of printing, or injured by the binder in putting into boards. It

is found, however, that three per cent is more than the

proportion destroyed, and that damage is less frequent in

proportion to the skill and care of the workmen.

From the evidence of several highly respectable booksellers

and printers, before the Committee of the House of Commons on the

Copyright Act, May, 1818, it appears that the average number of

surplus copies, above 500, is between two and three; that on

smaller impressions it is less, whilst on larger editions it is

greater; that, in some instances, the complete number of 500 is

not made up, in which case the printer is obliged to pay for

completing it; and that in no instance have the whole sixteen

extra copies been completed. On the volume in the reader’s hands,

the edition of which consisted of 3000, the surplus amounted to

fifty-two—a circumstance arising from the improvements in

printing and the increased care of the pressmen. Now this

overplus ought to be accounted for to the author—and I believe

it usually is so by all respectable publishers.

388. In order to prevent the printer from privately taking

off a larger number of impressions than he delivers to the author

or publisher, various expedients have been adopted. In some works

a particular watermark has been used in paper made purposely for

the book: thus the words ‘Mecanique Celeste’ appear in the

watermark of the two first volumes of the great work of Laplace.

In other cases, where the work is illustrated by engravings, such

a fraud would be useless without the concurrence of the

copperplate printer. In France it is usual to print a notice on

the back of the title page, that no copies are genuine without

the subjoined signature of the author: and attached to this

notice is the author’s name, either written, or printed by hand

from a wooden block. But notwithstanding this precaution, I have

recently purchased a volume, printed at Paris, in which the

notice exists, but no signature is attached. In London there is

not much danger of such frauds, because the printers are men of

capital, to whom the profit on such a transaction would be

trifling, and the risk of the detection of a fact, which must of

necessity be known to many of their workmen, would be so great as

to render the attempt at it folly.

389. Perhaps the best advice to an author, if he publishes on

his own account, and is a reasonable person, possessed of common

sense, would be to go at once to a respectable printer and make

his arrangements with him.

390. If the author do not wish to print his work at his own

risk, then he should make an agreement with a publisher for an

edition of a limited number; but he should by no means sell the

copyright. If the work contains woodcuts or engravings, it would

be judicious to make it part of the contract that they shall

become the author’s property, with the view to their use in a

subsequent edition of the works, if they should be required. An

agreement is frequently made by which the publisher advances the

money and incurs all the risk on condition of his sharing the

profits with the author. The profits alluded to are, for the

present work, the last item of section 382, or L306 4s.

391. Having now explained all the arrangements in printing

the present volume, let us return to section 382, and examine the

distribution of the L915 paid by the public. Of this sum L207 was

the cost of the book, L40 was taxes, L3S2 was the charges of the

bookseller in conveying it to the consumer, and L306 remained for

authorship.

The largest portion, or L362 goes into the pockets of the

booksellers; and as they do not advance capital, and incur very

little risk, this certainly appears to be an unreasonable

allowance. The most extravagant part of the charge is the

thirty-three per cent which is allowed as profit on retailing the

book.

It is stated, however, that all retail booksellers allow to

their customers a discount of ten per cent upon orders above

20s., and that consequently the nominal profit of forty-four or

thirty-three per cent is very much reduced. If this is the case,

it may fairly be enquired, why the price of L2 for example, is

printed upon the back of a book, when every bookseller is ready

to sell it at L1 16s., and why those who are unacquainted with

that circumstance should be made to pay more than others who are

better informed?

392. Several reasons have been alleged as justifying this

high rate of profit.

First, it has been alleged that the purchasers of books take

long credit. This, probably, is often the case, and admitting it,

no reasonable person can object to a proportionate increase of

price. But it is no less clear, that persons who do pay ready

money, should not be charged the same price as those who defer

their payments to a remote period.

Secondly, it has been urged that large profits are necessary

to pay for the great expenses of bookselling establishments; that

rents are high and taxes heavy; and that it would be impossible

for the great booksellers to compete with the smaller ones,

unless the retail profits were great. In reply to this it may be

observed that the booksellers are subject to no peculiar pressure

which does not attach to all other retail trades. It may also be

remarked that large establishments always have advantages over

smaller ones, in the economy arising from the division of labour;

and it is scarcely to be presumed that booksellers are the only

class who, in large concerns, neglect to avail themselves of

them.

Thirdly, it has been pretended that this high rate of profit

is necessary to cover the risk of the bookseller’s having some

copies left on his shelves; but he is not obliged to buy of the

publisher a single copy more than he has orders for: and if he do

purchase more, at the subscription price, he proves, by the very

fact, that he himself does not estimate that risk at more than

from four to eight per cent.

393. It has been truly observed, on the other hand, that many

copies of books are spoiled by persons who enter the shops of

booksellers without intending to make any purchase. But, not to

mention that such persons finding on the tables various new

publications, are frequently induced, by that opportunity of

inspecting them, to become purchasers: this damage does not apply

to all booksellers nor to all books; of course it is not

necessary to keep in the shop books of small probable demand or

great price. In the present case, the retail profit on three

copies only, namely, 4s. 6d., would pay the whole cost of the one

copy soiled in the shop; and even that copy might afterwards

produce, at an auction, half or a third of its cost price. The

argument, therefore, from disappointments in the sale of books,

and that arising from heavy stock, are totally groundless in the

question between publisher and author. It shold be remarked also,

that the publisher is generally a retail, as well as a wholesale,

bookseller; and that, besides his profit upon every copy which he

sells in his capacity of agent, he is allowed to charge the

author as if every copy had been subscribed for at 4s. 2d., and

of course he receives the same profit as the rest of the

wholesale traders for the books retailed in his own shop.

394. In the country, there is more reason for a considerable

allowance between the retail dealer and the public; because the

profit of the country bookseller is diminished by the expense of

the carriage of the books from London. He must also pay a

commission, usually five per cent, to his London agent, on all

those books which his correspondent does not himself publish. If

to this be added a discount of five per cent, allowed for ready

money to every customer, and of ten per cent to book clubs, the

profit of the bookseller in a small country town is by no means

too large.

Some of the writers, who have published criticisms on the

observations made in the first edition of this work, have

admitted that the apparent rate of profit to the booksellers is

too large. But they have, on the other hand, urged that too

favourable a case is taken in supposing the whole 3000 copies

sold. If the reader will turn back to section 382, he will find

that the expense of the three first items remains the same,

whatever be the number of copies sold; and on looking over the

remaining items he will perceive that the bookseller, who incurs

very little risk and no outlay, derives exactly the same profit

per cent on the copies sold, whatever their numbers may be. This,

however, is not the case with the unfortunate author, on whom

nearly the whole of the loss falls undivided. The same writers

have also maintained, that the profit is fixed at the rate

mentioned, in order to enable the bookseller to sustain losses,

unavoidably incurred in the purchase and retail of other books.

This is the weakest of all arguments. It would be equally just

that a merchant should charge an extravagant commission for an

undertaking unaccompanied with any risk, in order to repay

himself for the losses which his own want of skill might lead to

in his other mercantile transactions.

395. That the profit in retailing books is really too large,

is proved by several circumstances: First, that the same nominal

rate of profit has existed in the bookselling trade for a long

series of years, notwithstanding the great fluctuations in the

rate of profit on capital invested in every other business.

Secondly, that, until very lately, a multitude of booksellers, in

all parts of London, were content with a much smaller profit, and

were willing to sell for ready money, or at short credit, to

persons of undoubted character, at a profit of only ten per cent,