3 - An Expanding Market

Summary

Chapter 3 locates books on the market to assess questions related to access. Against notions of books as selected objects in colonial society, this chapter aims to demonstrate their everyday presence in the marketplace. Through examples of careers and stocks of traders, it provides a synopsis of the variety of professions and bookselling ventures in the Peruvian capital. While the urban commerce of books had developed into an established business with a number of specialised booksellers in Lima after the turn of the nineteenth century, the regional trade worked quite differently, relying above all on small and individual commissions sent with muleteers into other parts of the viceroyalty of Peru. A focus on used books for sale and an analysis of book prices combined with wages indicates the affordability of books. At various sites, and especially in cities, reading material had become a ubiquitous and accessible commodity.