How much would a popular English-language book cost a person living in the 1700s?
September 25, 2011 2:08 PM Subscribe
How much would a popular English-language book cost a person living in the 1700s?
What percentage of an unskilled laborer's salary would that be? What is that figure in today's money adjusted for inflation?
What percentage of an unskilled laborer's salary would that be? What is that figure in today's money adjusted for inflation?
Was just about to post that exact Colonial Williamsburg link. But I got caught up reading it and you beat me to it.
posted by jeffch at 2:20 PM on September 25, 2011
posted by jeffch at 2:20 PM on September 25, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks for this. I am trying to determine how much a book like "Gulliver's Travels" would have cost (published in 1726).
posted by Lownotes at 2:29 PM on September 25, 2011
posted by Lownotes at 2:29 PM on September 25, 2011
Another site lists an almanac at 9p, Dr. Johnson's Dictionary (1756) at 10 schillings and the wages of an unskilled laborer at 9 schillings/week.
This information comes from a book about Dr. Johnson's London, which lends some credibility to the data.
posted by jeffch at 2:41 PM on September 25, 2011
This information comes from a book about Dr. Johnson's London, which lends some credibility to the data.
posted by jeffch at 2:41 PM on September 25, 2011
Here is a list of books and their prices in an April 1735 magazine.
posted by XMLicious at 2:48 PM on September 25, 2011
posted by XMLicious at 2:48 PM on September 25, 2011
One factor that affects the price of 18th-century books is that typically, you'd go to a book seller and select the binding you wanted. I don't have numbers ready-to-hand, but I'd guess that the choice of binding would affect the price by a factor of 3? 5?
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 2:52 PM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 2:52 PM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
I would think that a major factor in this question would be where the book was purchased. Prices for all goods were much, much more heterogenous then; they varied greatly from place to place, particularly since merchants weren't commonly (I don't believe) in the habit of shipping books from place to place.
posted by koeselitz at 2:57 PM on September 25, 2011
posted by koeselitz at 2:57 PM on September 25, 2011
You might be interested in The Literary Underground of the Old Regime. It is a classic on the book trade in Europe during the Enlightenment.
According to that book, booksellers were highly regulated. Booksellers guilds were very difficult to join, and the members of the guild were financially well off and successful.
Popular reading among the masses was often pamphlets and smaller printings. Sometimes these pamphlets would be excerpts from other successful books, like perhaps Gulliver's Travels.
The books that were legal to print obviously cost less than banned material. Lots of books were banned. Banned books were often the most sought after, and could cost twice as much as a legal book. Swift did have some books banned, but I think Gulliver's Travels would have been a legal book to purchase.
The Literary Underground of the Old Regime discusses a specific case of the seizure of a crate of illegal books by the police in Paris in the mid1700s. The books was Errotika Biblion by Mirabeau - a popular pornographic book of the day. The author estimates the street value of each book to be equal to a week of food for a middle class family, or the day's wages for a skilled master mason or carpentar. He notes that lawyers and magistrates would have saved up their money to purchase this type of illegal book.
So, if the illegal book is a week of food, and the legal book is half price - then, Gulliver's Travel would be about equal to a half a week of food for a family.
posted by Flood at 2:57 PM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
According to that book, booksellers were highly regulated. Booksellers guilds were very difficult to join, and the members of the guild were financially well off and successful.
Popular reading among the masses was often pamphlets and smaller printings. Sometimes these pamphlets would be excerpts from other successful books, like perhaps Gulliver's Travels.
The books that were legal to print obviously cost less than banned material. Lots of books were banned. Banned books were often the most sought after, and could cost twice as much as a legal book. Swift did have some books banned, but I think Gulliver's Travels would have been a legal book to purchase.
The Literary Underground of the Old Regime discusses a specific case of the seizure of a crate of illegal books by the police in Paris in the mid1700s. The books was Errotika Biblion by Mirabeau - a popular pornographic book of the day. The author estimates the street value of each book to be equal to a week of food for a middle class family, or the day's wages for a skilled master mason or carpentar. He notes that lawyers and magistrates would have saved up their money to purchase this type of illegal book.
So, if the illegal book is a week of food, and the legal book is half price - then, Gulliver's Travel would be about equal to a half a week of food for a family.
posted by Flood at 2:57 PM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
Worth noting: at that time (and until relatively recently) people generally bought new books in unbound sheets and had them bound to suit their tastes and budgets by a bookbinder -- the price list to which XMLicious links is for unbound sheets.
Gulliver's Travels appeared in a variety of editions, from different publishers, which led to a famous copyright case between the Irish and English booksellers. There were also pirate editions. Other works might be published by subscription -- an 18th-century Kickstarter -- where early and generous patrons would get deluxe folio editions and their names listed.
Here's a nice anecdote about John Gay's Polly, a scandalous and censored work from the same period: Gay priced his quarto edition at six shillings, then pirate octavo editions appeared at 1/- and 1/6, and he had to get an injunction against the pirates.
posted by holgate at 2:58 PM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Gulliver's Travels appeared in a variety of editions, from different publishers, which led to a famous copyright case between the Irish and English booksellers. There were also pirate editions. Other works might be published by subscription -- an 18th-century Kickstarter -- where early and generous patrons would get deluxe folio editions and their names listed.
Here's a nice anecdote about John Gay's Polly, a scandalous and censored work from the same period: Gay priced his quarto edition at six shillings, then pirate octavo editions appeared at 1/- and 1/6, and he had to get an injunction against the pirates.
posted by holgate at 2:58 PM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The official selling price of the first London edition of Gulliver's Travels was 8 shillings 6 pence, according to the Oct. 1726 issue of The Monthly Catalogue: Being a General Register of Books, Sermons, Plays, Poetry, Pamphlets, &c. Printed and Publish'd in London, or the Universities. Pirated editions, abridgements, chapbook versions etc. would have been considerably more affordable--a cheap chapbook could go for less than a penny.
For comparison, the same issue of The Monthly Catalogue lists book prices ranging from 3 shillings (A Discourse of the Judicial Authority, belonging to the Office of Master of the Rolls in the High Court of Chancery) to 10 shillings (The Sacred Interpreter: Or, a Practical Introduction towards a beneficial Reading and a thorough Understanding of the Holy Bible). Printed pamphlets cost 6 pence or 1 shilling. (These are all prices for legitimately printed books, as opposed to piracies and chapbooks.)
According to Ian Watt (The Rise of the Novel, p. 41), an average 18th-century laborer might make about 10 shillings a week. Take this and all other estimates of standard 18th-century wages with a huge grain of salt, however. Conversions between 18th-century and 21st-century prices should be taken with an even huger grain of salt, but Roy Porter has suggested that "multiplying eighteenth-century sums by a factor of perhaps 60 or 80 will give a rough-and-ready 1990 equivalent" (so factor in 20 more years of inflation).
Finally, also note that the 1774 legal case of Donaldson v. Becket, which effectively ended perpetual copyright, radically changed the nature of the publishing game (particularly when it came to reprinting older works), so anything you learn about book prices in the first three quarters of the 18th century doesn't necessarily apply to the end of the century.
posted by DaDaDaDave at 4:00 PM on September 25, 2011 [7 favorites]
For comparison, the same issue of The Monthly Catalogue lists book prices ranging from 3 shillings (A Discourse of the Judicial Authority, belonging to the Office of Master of the Rolls in the High Court of Chancery) to 10 shillings (The Sacred Interpreter: Or, a Practical Introduction towards a beneficial Reading and a thorough Understanding of the Holy Bible). Printed pamphlets cost 6 pence or 1 shilling. (These are all prices for legitimately printed books, as opposed to piracies and chapbooks.)
According to Ian Watt (The Rise of the Novel, p. 41), an average 18th-century laborer might make about 10 shillings a week. Take this and all other estimates of standard 18th-century wages with a huge grain of salt, however. Conversions between 18th-century and 21st-century prices should be taken with an even huger grain of salt, but Roy Porter has suggested that "multiplying eighteenth-century sums by a factor of perhaps 60 or 80 will give a rough-and-ready 1990 equivalent" (so factor in 20 more years of inflation).
Finally, also note that the 1774 legal case of Donaldson v. Becket, which effectively ended perpetual copyright, radically changed the nature of the publishing game (particularly when it came to reprinting older works), so anything you learn about book prices in the first three quarters of the 18th century doesn't necessarily apply to the end of the century.
posted by DaDaDaDave at 4:00 PM on September 25, 2011 [7 favorites]
Instant fave to DaDaDaDave. That first (anonymous) edition of Gulliver's Travel's, printed and sold by Benjamin Motte, sold out in ten days; Swift received £200, though according to the DNB, he had to haggle for prompt payment in full. 8/6 isn't cheap, but the edition included maps and a 'portrait' of Gulliver, to assist in passing the book off alongside the travelogues of the period. Every page that wasn't standard English text -- two-colour printing, engravings, or the musical scores in Gay's Polly -- added to the cost of printing and the price at the bookseller.
posted by holgate at 4:27 PM on September 25, 2011
posted by holgate at 4:27 PM on September 25, 2011
Response by poster: All of these answers are amazing. Thank you so much.
posted by Lownotes at 6:47 AM on September 26, 2011
posted by Lownotes at 6:47 AM on September 26, 2011
Take this and all other estimates of standard 18th-century wages with a huge grain of salt, however.
Are there seriously no historical records of wage accounts from manufacturing or other employers? Not a single ledger remains?
posted by spicynuts at 8:38 AM on September 26, 2011
Are there seriously no historical records of wage accounts from manufacturing or other employers? Not a single ledger remains?
posted by spicynuts at 8:38 AM on September 26, 2011
Are there seriously no historical records of wage accounts from manufacturing or other employers? Not a single ledger remains?
It's not that no records have survived, but the data we have is so fragmentary and its provenance and reliability are so variable that it's hard to construct really trustworthy averages, especially for the lower classes.
posted by DaDaDaDave at 11:53 AM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
It's not that no records have survived, but the data we have is so fragmentary and its provenance and reliability are so variable that it's hard to construct really trustworthy averages, especially for the lower classes.
posted by DaDaDaDave at 11:53 AM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
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Lots more in this article from the Colonial Williamsburg site including an explanation of how they arrived at the modern dollar figures. The figures are for a schoolteacher and for a prayer book but that might give you start.
posted by vacapinta at 2:18 PM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]