Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 402.: THE RULES OF THE BOOKSELLERS' ASSOCIATION [1] REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF A MEETING (1852), P. 8 - The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXV - Newspaper Writings December 1847 - July 1873 Part IV

Return to Title Page for The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXV - Newspaper Writings December 1847 - July 1873 Part IV

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory
Collection: The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill

402.: THE RULES OF THE BOOKSELLERS’ ASSOCIATION [1] REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF A MEETING (1852), P. 8 - John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXV - Newspaper Writings December 1847 - July 1873 Part IV [1847]

Edition used:

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, XXV - Newspaper Writings December 1847 - July 1873 Part IV, ed. Ann P. Robson and John M. Robson, Introduction by Ann P. Robson and John M. Robson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986).

Part of: Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, in 33 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


402.

THE RULES OF THE BOOKSELLERS’ ASSOCIATION [1]

REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF A MEETING (1852), P. 8

John Chapman (1821-94), physician, bookseller and publisher, now proprietor and editor of the Westminster Review, undertook in January 1852 to sell imported American books at a larger discount than that permitted by the group of London publishers who controlled the Booksellers’ Association. As a consequence Chapman was excluded from the Association and undertook a campaign against their monopoly. He appealed to many authors for support, and in the Westminster for April 1852 (n.s. I, 511-54) published his article “The Commerce of Literature,” an effective attack on the Association’s policies. The Booksellers met on 8 Apr. and decided to submit their case to a committee headed by Lord Chief Justice Campbell. On 4 May, Chapman was host to a meeting of rebels, particularly authors, presided over by Charles Dickens, and including such well known writers as Francis W. Newman, Wilkie Collins, G.H. Lewes, and Herbert Spencer. Dickens read letters from some who could not attend, including Carlyle, Cobden, Gladstone, and this one from Mill. Resolutions against the monopoly were forwarded to Lord Campbell’s committee, which on 19 May voted unanimously against the Booksellers’ Association and in favour of free trade in books. Mill’s letter, dated “East India House, March 5, 1852,” is printed in A Report of the Proceedings of a Meeting (Consisting Chiefly of Authors), Held May 4th, at the House of Mr. John Chapman, 142, Strand, for the Purpose of Hastening the Removal of the Trade Restriction on the Commerce of Literature (London: Chapman, 1852), p. 8. This and No. 403 are described in Mill’s bibliography as “Two Letters on the Rules of the Booksellers’ Association, printed in two pamphlets on that subject circulated in 1852, the one by Mr. John Chapman, bookseller, the other by Messrs. Parker” (MacMinn, p. 76). The MS of Mill’s letter is in the Hollander Collection, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The text below is the printed version, which agrees in substantives with the MS. Both are dated “East India House, March 5, 1852.”

sir,—

There is no case to which, in my opinion, the principles of free trade are more completely applicable than to the question in dispute between the London Booksellers’ Association, and those who claim a right to sell books at a less profit than that prescribed by the rules of the Association.

Not only in the book trade, but in all others, I conceive that the profits of distributors absorb at present a very undue proportion of the proceeds of industry; and it appears to me impossible to maintain that their contenting themselves with a lower rate of remuneration would be injurious to the producers. It is self-evident, that whatever part of the profits publishers and retailers are willing to forego, must be gained either by authors or buyers, and if by buyers it would still benefit authors by increasing the sale of books.

I am, Sir, Your obedient servant

J.S. Mill