Fixed price of knowledge W hatever the drawbacks of Mr Law-
son's notion that publications should be subject to VAT, the last people who should be preaching about the importance of putting a low price on knowledge are the publishers. Almost all books published in this country are subject to the Net Book Agreement, an arrangement, nobly de- scribed as protecting quality, which makes it illegal for new books to be sold below their net price. This means, of course, that the price of books is held artificially high. The only difference between this tax on knowledge, and that proposed by the Government, is that the Net Book Agree- ment makes life very comfortable for publishers. The real price of books, one suspects, isover 15 per cent below what the publishers have set: abolishing the Agree- ment would amply compensate for the imposition of VAT. But it would oblige publishers and booksellers to compete without benefit of a restrictive practice, and however much they may curse restric- tive practices in other industries, in their own hardly one in a hundred would wel- come an end to price-fixing.
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