Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

3 results

  • 28 - French paper in English books

  • from THE BUSINESS OF PRINT AND THE SPACE OF READING
  • Edited by John Barnard, University of Leeds, D. F. McKenzie, University of Oxford
  • With Maureen Bell, University of Birmingham
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 November 2002, pp 583-601

  • Summary

    A growing demand for printing paper and other economic incentives stimulated domestic production, but political measures were needed to protect it. French mills dominated the English market, supplying far more than Italy, Germany, Holland, and the other exporting countries combined. Printers consumed so much French paper that they could name different types by the place of origin, like varieties of cheese. Authors and publishers were given the right to import large amounts of high-priced duty-free paper, which they could sell on the side to subsidize expensive publications. Beset by tariffs and embargoes, French merchants could no longer compete in the British market against imports from other countries and the products of British mills, by then steadily improving in quality. British papermakers competed against the import trade most successfully at the lower end of the market, where they could sell cheap printing papers at a satisfactory profit.