¹ There is unfortunately little published material (and virtually no statistics) on the Canadian book trade. I have had, therefore, to rely heavily on interviews. My task has been made more difficult by the rather unsatisfying state of economic and legal opinion on copyright, and in particular on the international copyright system. On copyright see Ladas, Stephen, The International Protection of Literary and Artistic Property (New York, 1938)Google Scholar, and SirPlant, Arnold, “The Economic Aspects of Copyright in Books,” Economica (N.S.), I, 1934, 167–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The best general accounts of the Canadian trade readily available are in SirUnwin, Stanley, The Truth about Publishing (London, 1946)Google Scholar, and Joseph, Michael, The Adventure of Publishing (London, 1949).Google Scholar

² See Miller, William, The Book Industry (New York, 1949)Google Scholar, for an account of the influence of these factors on publishing in the United States.

³ Some agents have a substantial direct mail order business of their own, much of it conducted at discounts of varying size for members of different professional groups.

⁴ One must mention here the recent attempts to develop a wholesaling agency in Canada made by W. H. Smith & Son. In this class, too, belongs the Co-operative Book Centre, which represents an attempt by the Canadian agents to provide, through a co-operative organization, some of the services made available to Canadian libraries by United States wholesalers, who are becoming a dangerously competitive element in the market.

⁵ The Concise Oxford Dictionary's definition of publisher is “one who produces copies of books, and distributes them to booksellers or to the public.” The Canadian agents prefer “one who issues copies of books for sale to the public.”

⁶ This is the usual figure, although at least one still gives only 35 per cent on single copy orders, and another gives an even lower discount.

⁷ The history of the role of customs officials in the policing of copyright provides an interesting comedy of errors. For many years it was the practice for Canadian agents to list with the customs authorities those books on which they had copyright. The customs would then, under a section of the Copyright Act, stop any such book destined for resale by anyone other than the copyright owner from entering Canada. The agents became dissatisfied with this procedure, however, and asked the Minister of National Revenue to amend the administrative practice so that all books having a particular publisher's imprint could be kept out in this fashion. The Minister reportedly agreed, but submitted the proposal to the Department of Justice for its approval. That Department, which had not been previously consulted, now ruled that even the original practice had been illegal, on several grounds, among them that the wording of the statute would prohibit all importation, including that by the copyright owner. The section was, in effect, drawn up only to protect the copyright holder who had actually printed the book in Canada. As a result of this ruling all action by the customs authorities, which had been in fact the chief reliance of the Canadian agents, has been stopped. A disturbing aspect of the story is the conviction among some British publishers that some Canadian agents have for many years been registering with the customs authorities books on which they had no copyright at all, but merely an exclusive agency for Canada. There appears to have been no machinery for checking their claim to copyright. Often, but not always, these agents have acted with the consent of the actual copyright owners.

⁸ But see comments on the Co-operative Book Centre in n. 4.

⁹ It can be argued that the action of these book dealers does not constitute an infringement of the Criminal Code of Canada, since the action of so small a number of firms, not having in any sense a monopoly or near monopoly of the trade, cannot be said to be an “undue” limitation of competition.

¹⁰ For a very interesting account of the dispersion of British book prices in the United States, see Tarshis, Lorie, “Price Ratios and International Trade Theory,” American Economic Review, LXIV, 1954, 120–2.Google Scholar

¹¹ Cf., for example, Yamey, B. S. and Hood, Julia, “Imperfect Competition in Retail Trades,” Economica (N.S.), XVIII, 1951, 119–37.Google Scholar

¹² See Wolfe, J. N., “The Representative Firm,” Economic Journal, LXIV, 1954, 337–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹³ This is similar to the stand taken by a committee of the Publishers Association of Great Britain. The British Book Service emerged as the result of action taken by several British publishers following their recommendations. Its coverage is as yet very small.

¹⁴ Report on Canada (London: The Publishers Association, 1954), 19–20.Google Scholar

¹⁵ The pursuit of monopoly gains by the agent is made easier if the demand is inelastic, and if entry is difficult. The action of the copyright law, the unique character of each book, and the shortness of its commercial life-span, all point in this direction. But where a substantial number of books have to be sold, the substitutability of books bought as gifts, for example, must be taken into account. This fact may explain the influence of the prices of similar United States books upon those of original Canadian works. It is often said that four thousand copies is the minimum sale required for successful first publication.

¹⁶ A few agents who are in fact branches of United States publishers do have the right to return unsold stock, and special arrangements are often made with respect to some particular title which the principal wishes pressed with unusual vigour. These are, however, exceptions to the general rule, as is the policy of one agent, who not only gives full returns privileges to bookstores, but even prepays freight. Many agents will, however, accept returns of some unsold stock from bookstores under special conditions.

¹⁷ Whether total sales will actually be less than they would otherwise have been will depend on the importance of the decline in sales pressure, on the size of cost and price declines, if any, resulting from the new organization of the trade, and on the elasticity of demand.

¹⁸ The system of book distribution on the west coast of the United States provides a remarkable comparison and contrast with that in Canada. These two areas are roughly similar in population, and the former has the natural protection of distance to match the Canadian tariff. The operation of the Robinson-Patman Act in the United States combines, however, with the nationwide advertising coverage of United States publishers to prevent higher prices in the west than in the east. United States publishers have, however, developed some interesting methods of reducing the costs of book distribution in their western market. My analysis has benefited greatly from a comparison of institutions in the two areas, and I suspect that a great deal of light can be cast on other areas of Canadian economic activity by such investigations.

¹⁹ The alleged advantages to Canadian authors of membership in the Universal Copyright Convention provides a further, though probably minor, reason for leaving the main lines of present legislation unchanged. On the whole, however, the long-run interest of Canadian authors lies in the vigorous development of the Canadian book trade, rather than in seeking their personal advantage directly.

²⁰ Such arrangements would require an amendment to the Copyright Act introducing an “abuse” section like that already in the Patent Act.