" THE TRADE," PAR EXCELLENCE.
THE -discussion respectino. Booksellers' Profits, which has arisen out of a statement by MI BABBAGE in his work on the Economy of Manufactures, relates to a question of importance to literature, but at the same time seems to admit of easy settlement. Mr. BABBAGE complains of the injuriously high profits of—lst, Mr. BABBAGE complains of the injuriously high profits of—lst, the publisher who undertakes the work from the author ; and 2d, of the retailer. First, as to the publisher. Mr. BABBAGE takes a case pecu- liarly favourable to his own view—one in which 3,000 copies are wholly sold ; and thence deduces the conclusion, that profits are extravagant. If this be so, let us ask, since the trade is open, how is it that the competition of capital has never interfered to reduce them? The trade may be ill-managed in some respects, but of the en- tire gain of booksellers the public have little reason to complain. It is a species of merchandise from 'which the returns have, of late at least, been any thing but profitable. The public has been gra- tified even in its caprices ; and authors, as .a body, have drawn enormous sums, such as could only have been given by enterpris- ing and speculative men of very considerable capital. The retailer's profit is in this business peculiarly arranged ; it is imposed upon him by the manufacturer. In all other articles of merchandise, the wholesale dealer or producer fixes his own price, and is content that the retailer should make what profit he can; large or small. But in the book trade, the publisher says— "I sell this book to you at such or such a price; but you shall not dispose of it again unless you can realize, say, five-and-twenty per cent. If you are discovered taking less, you shall never more be admitted to the privileges of a bookseller.' This is a curious circumstance, and admits but of one explana- tion. There is no actual division between the trades of publisher and bookseller—in other words, manufacturer and retailer. The wholesale merchant keeps also a retail shop ; and unless he in- sisted upon a certain rate of profit in the person to whom he sells, he must give up any idea of retailing himself. But, on the other hand, were the state of things different,— were it the practice of every publisher to sell only his own publica- tions, and these at the wholesale price,—what would be the conse- quence? It would not be worth his while to sell less than a con- siderable quantity together, like any other manufacturer. Perhaps five-and-twenty would be the lowest number of copies he would find it convenient to despatch from his warehouse. A race of mid- dlemen must necessarily arise, who would have their profit, and a very considerable profit too, in return for the risk of loss. To these parties alone would the small retailer apply, and on their price he must add his profit : so that probably, in the end, the public would gain nothing. We say probably; for until the experiment is tried, it is very difficult to say what would be demanded, if the trade were allowed, to take its natural course—it might be more, it might be less.
It may be said that middlemen do in some sense now exist, and that the large retailers occupy that post. The considerable stock they are obliged to keep for show, does invest them partly with that ,character. Had the underselling system continued, the shops and stocks of booksellers must have disappeared ; and in the end, we should have bad only publishers and agents; every man must have ordered his book, and no one could have had a choice out of variety. The combination among the publishers has prevented this change from taking place. At present, no divison between the trades of publisher and retailer exists; • and as it is almost impos- ble to separate them, the publishers now fix upon a regular rate of profit, in order to prevent being undersold by persons who would, from the peculiar nature of the merchandise, run away with a great share from of the profit, and avoid the whole of the risk. The alternative in the publisher's hands is this : he says to the retailer—" You must take twenty-five copies of this work ; or if only one, then you must sell it at this fixed price." Those who examine Mr. BABBAGE'S book, will see that he has entirely overlooked this consideration. But if, in all his expe- rience of manufactures, he will show us that the manufacturer will sell to a casual person who knocks at the gate of his factory, a yard of cloth or a pair of doll's-eyes at the price he would charge • to a London dealer for a hundred pieces or a thousand gross, then -we surrender the Trade to his mercy. It is possible that it might be better for the occupations of pub- lisher and bookseller to be wholly separated : but unless they were so by legislative interference, we know not how they could be ; and we should be exceedingly jealous of the knot being cut by such an .expedient.
Improvements might, as we have said, be introduced into the conduct of the trade. At present, for example, many publishers deal in an article they are no judges of: what is the ordinary result of such a state of things ?—that the person in question is duped; ,and in order to screen himself from loss, endeavours to dupe others. Hence much of the immorality of the trade,—thepujfing system; in. other words, a system of falsehood and fraud, only to be com- pared to the business of "chanting,"--a department in horse- dealing well 'known to Many of our 'readers. But this vice begins in the ignorance of the bookseller, and ends in the ignorance of the .public. Time, Which is educating both bookseller and bookbuyer, will soon enable each to deal with his enemy. . The incapacity of the publisher has another effect: if he is -unable truly to discern the merit of a work, his -business is a lot- tery he must make the prizes pay for the blanks ;- hiscapital must return its profit; the public must pay him for his losses through the niedium of his successful work. This is precisely the system of bad debts, in' which the " living 7 are said to "pay for the dead." In this view of the matter, publishers' profits may be too high, because their losses are saddled upon the public—in some instances, and these only of what may be called, on the whole, successful trade. The root of this evil also is chiefly in ignorance; and time will cure it as well as the vice of puffing. Not altogether, however : it will be always difficult to calculate exactly the wants or the caprices of the public ; and in this race, the shrewdest, cceteris paribus, will win.
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