The Role of the Print House in the Book Trade during the Hand-Press period 1450-1850 An Irish Perspective.
... trades was underway. The main reason for the upsurge in printing / book trade in Ireland was, quite extraordinarily, the British Copyright Act of 1709. The Act did not extend to Ireland , so reprints of books first published in England became the staple of the Dublin book trade. In the early part of the 18th century much of the equipment and supplies for the printing/ book trade had to be imported from Holland, England and Scotland (type) with paper coming from Italy, Holland, France and Britain. Even still, the reprints were cheaper than the originals and not only were they sold in Dublin and rural Ireland they were also exported to England. English book sellers naturally objected to this and in 1739 the Copyright Act was reinforced by the Importation Act whereby it became illegal to import into Britain any reprint of a book first printed there. The existence of many Dublin-printed books with false London imprints - ‘A.Moore’, ‘Web;, ‘T.Cooper’ were favoured names - seem to indicate an intention to break this law. The fact was that many false London imprints were aimed at the fashion conscious Irish reader who wanted a ‘London’ printed book. (Sessions 1900) In the absence of an Irish copyright law, publication in Dublin was regulated by an informal agreement among the booksellers whereby whoever first posted up or published his intentions to bring out a certain work, secured the rights to it. Inevitably there was disputes and rival editions but on the whole the system worked well. If titles were judged to have a good potential market individual booksellers would undertake to have them printed. For books with a more doubtful market or if a greater investment was needed proposals might be issued to have them printed by subscription. The work would be put to press when a few hundred copies had been subscribed for, thus sharing the risk. In the 1770s the booksellers often formed themselves into loose partnerships styled the Company of Booksellers, to finance works. The Company also regulated imports from London. The concept of a specialist wholesale bookseller, supplying the trade at discount - a publisher in effect as we understand it today- began to emerge at the end of the century. Apart from Dublin and Belfast few towns could support specialist printer/booksellers. The country book-buyer would correspond with a bookseller in one of these cities. The establishment of newspapers in rural towns provided the impetus to the spread of the printing press beyond the main cities. However these presses were concerned more printing posters, stationery, handbills as well as newspapers. (Long, 1996) In the mid 1780s Dublin supported 53 printing houses and 10 newspapers. Full free trade was allowed in 1783 and the American market was available to booksellers. Wilson’s Dublin Directories record an expansion in book trade businesses from 70 in 1781 to 118 in 1793. While bookselling in Ireland seemed to be set for success the printing house was heading for disaster. Several unrelated events took their toll. First of all a Dublin newspaper, Public Monitor, was responsible for printing scandalous libels. This lead the government to introduce the first statute laws to control the printing press. The first Stamp Act of 1774 imposed duties on newspapers and pamphlets and required printers to print their names and address in the works published. Each proprietor had to lodge security of £500 - a vast sum considering that at this time compositors were earning £1.11/6 per week. Journeymen papermakers were earning less than 15 shillings which lead to a long strike in 1795. This strike coincided with a war which meant that the traditional French sources were cut off. Supplies from England and Scotland carried heavy import duties and the Irish mills could not keep up with the demand and both the book trade and printing houses were decimated. Many left the business entirely and emigrated to America. This was compounded by the fact that many in the book trade were members of the illegal United Irishmen who began an uprising in 1798. The rising failed and many were imprisoned and exiled. What else could possibly happen to make things even ...