The Library Series
EDITED BY
Dr. RICHARD GARNETT
IV
PRICES OF BOOKS
The Library Series
Edited, with Introductions, by Dr. RICHARD GARNETT
- THE FREE LIBRARY: Its History andPresent Condition. By J. J. Ogle, of BootleFree Library. Cloth, 6s. net.
- LIBRARY CONSTRUCTION, ARCHITECTURE,AND FITTINGS. By F. J. Burgoyne,of the Tate Central Library, Brixton.With 141 Illustrations. Cloth, 6s. net.
- LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION. By J.Macfarlane, of the British Museum. Cloth,6s. net.
- PRICES OF BOOKS. By Henry B.Wheatley, of the Society of Arts. Cloth,6s. net.
PRICES OF BOOKS
AN INQUIRY INTO THE CHANGES IN THE PRICE
OF BOOKS WHICH HAVE OCCURRED IN
ENGLAND AT DIFFERENT PERIODS
BY
HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A.
LONDON
GEORGE ALLEN, 156, CHARING CROSS ROAD
1898
[All rights reserved]
Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
At the Ballantyne Press
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
The history of prices is one of the most interestingsubjects that can engage research. As languagehas been called fossil poetry, from which the primitiveworkings of the mind of man may be elicited,so the story of his progress in material well-beinglies enfolded in the history of the prices which haveat various periods been procurable for commodities,whether of prime necessity, of general utility,or simply ornamental. The prices of books, so ablyinvestigated and recorded by Mr. Wheatley inthe following pages, are a small but significant departmentof a great subject. If we had no recordof the price of any other article of commerce,we should still perceive in them an index to theworld’s advance in wealth, taste, and general intelligence.With every allowance for the fall in thevalue of money, it would yet be manifest that pricescould now be afforded for books which at an earlierperiod would have been out of the question; andnot less so that while some classes of books had risenin worth with the enhanced standard of wealth,others had accommodated themselves to the requirementsof the poor. We should trace the effectof mechanical improvements in diminishing the[vi]prices of things, and of fashion and curiosity inaugmenting them. We should see the enormousinfluence of scarcity in forcing up the value ofproducts, while we should learn at the same timethat this was not the sole agent, but that intrinsicmerit must usually to some extent co-operate withit, and that prices must bear some relation to theinherent reason of things. It must, for instance,have been entirely unforeseen by the early printersthat the books which they advertised with suchexultation as cheaper than the manuscripts theywere superseding would in process of time becomedearer, but we can discern this metamorphosis ofrelative value to have been rational and inevitable.Finally, the fluctuations of price would afford a clueto the intellectual con