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  • 28 - The British book in North America

  • from IV - THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET
  • 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

  • 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.