264

COMBINATIONS OF MASTERS

booksellers in all parts of London , were willing to bosatisfied with a much smaller profit, and to sell, forready money, or at short credit, to persons of un-doubted character, at a profit of only ten per cent.,and in some instances even at a still smaller per-centage, instead of that of twenty-five per cent, onthe published prices.

It cannot he pretended that this high rate of profitis necessary to cover the risk of the bookseller havingsome copies left on his shelves; because he need notbuy of the publisher a single copy more than he hasorders for: and even if he do purchase more at thesubscription price, he proves, by that very purchase,that he himself does not estimate that risk at abovefrom four to eight per cent. It should also be re-marked, that the publisher is generally a retail, aswell as a wholesale, bookseller; and that, besides theprofit which he realises on every copy sold by him inhis capacity of agent, he is allowed to charge theauthor as if every copy had been subscribed for at4s. 2d., and of course he receives the same profit asthe rest of the trade for those retailed in his shop.

(298.) Now, a certain number of the London booksellers, have combined together. One of theirobjects is to prevent any bookseller from selling abook at less than ten per cent, under the publishedprice ; and in order to enforce this principle, theyrefuse to sell books, except at the publishing price,to any bookseller who declines signing their agree-ment. By degrees, many were prevailed upon tojoin this combination ; and the effect of the exclu-sion it inflicted, left the small capitalist no optionbetween signing or having his business destroyed.