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Philipp Erasmus Reich and the Leipzig publishers' cartel, N.N. [Leipzig] (1765)
Source: Niedersächsische Staats-und Universitätsbibliothek 2 HLL I, 8075 (1)
Citation:
Philipp Erasmus Reich and the Leipzig publishers' cartel, N.N. [Leipzig] (1765), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
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In view of the fact that since long ago many troublesome abuses have been emerging in the
bookselling-trade, and that these have spread about – not so much furtively as, on the contrary, with
a certain audacious shamelessness – to such an extent that various unscrupulous persons now reprint
books which aren’t their property at all, merely out of an infamous greed for profit, and offer them
for sale at public book fairs, as well as sometimes even having the insolence to threaten further
reprinting; now charge one colleague in the business a lower price, and the other a higher price,
for those books that do belong to them as rightful proprietors, thereby violating all established
notions of loyalty and good faith, and causing many an innocent bookseller to be greatly maligned as
a result of the disparity [in prices] that customers will thus inevitably find between the catalogue
of one book-shop and that of another nearby; and, finally, act so unbecomingly with regard to their
profession that, although they pose as booksellers at the public fairs and are eager to enjoy the
advantages associated with the collegial exchange of books that are so peculiar to the bookselling-
trade, outside of these fairs they not only ignore the prices that had been agreed at the fairs,
but even sell off these books [the ones other booksellers had given them in exchange for books they
had published] for a mere trifle, often giving away the finest works, which they had surreptitiously
acquired thanks to the deceptively high prices of their own publications, for a price that doesn’t
even come to half their true value; and, furthermore, in view of the fact that all these insolent
encroachments, deceptions, and sleights of hand, as well as others not mentioned here, are aimed at
and really do lead to the manifest ruin and discredit of the once so highly esteemed bookselling-
trade, all the more so, given that at the fairs which have been held so far, the matter has always
been left with one bookseller privately complaining to another about this or that offence, but
without leading to any speedy and effective remedies against these offences by means of co-operative
conventions, discussions, and measures agreed on jointly: in view of all this, we think that it is
high time that all honourable booksellers (both those who have their own publishing house and those
who are just retail traders), who are enemies to deceit and chicanery, come together in a generally
beneficent [non-profit making] association and begin to offer one another their mutual help in
promoting their joint welfare. To which effect we, the undersigned, hereby duly invite and urge
every righteously minded person to henceforward make known their accession to this association by
adding their own signature [to this document].
No Transcription available.
Source: Niedersächsische Staats-und Universitätsbibliothek 2 HLL I, 8075 (1)
Citation:
Philipp Erasmus Reich and the Leipzig publishers' cartel, N.N. [Leipzig] (1765), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
Back | Record | Images | Commentaries: [1]
Translation only | Transcription only | Show all | Bundled images as pdf
In view of the fact that since long ago many troublesome abuses have been emerging in the
bookselling-trade, and that these have spread about – not so much furtively as, on the contrary, with
a certain audacious shamelessness – to such an extent that various unscrupulous persons now reprint
books which aren’t their property at all, merely out of an infamous greed for profit, and offer them
for sale at public book fairs, as well as sometimes even having the insolence to threaten further
reprinting; now charge one colleague in the business a lower price, and the other a higher price,
for those books that do belong to them as rightful proprietors, thereby violating all established
notions of loyalty and good faith, and causing many an innocent bookseller to be greatly maligned as
a result of the disparity [in prices] that customers will thus inevitably find between the catalogue
of one book-shop and that of another nearby; and, finally, act so unbecomingly with regard to their
profession that, although they pose as booksellers at the public fairs and are eager to enjoy the
advantages associated with the collegial exchange of books that are so peculiar to the bookselling-
trade, outside of these fairs they not only ignore the prices that had been agreed at the fairs,
but even sell off these books [the ones other booksellers had given them in exchange for books they
had published] for a mere trifle, often giving away the finest works, which they had surreptitiously
acquired thanks to the deceptively high prices of their own publications, for a price that doesn’t
even come to half their true value; and, furthermore, in view of the fact that all these insolent
encroachments, deceptions, and sleights of hand, as well as others not mentioned here, are aimed at
and really do lead to the manifest ruin and discredit of the once so highly esteemed bookselling-
trade, all the more so, given that at the fairs which have been held so far, the matter has always
been left with one bookseller privately complaining to another about this or that offence, but
without leading to any speedy and effective remedies against these offences by means of co-operative
conventions, discussions, and measures agreed on jointly: in view of all this, we think that it is
high time that all honourable booksellers (both those who have their own publishing house and those
who are just retail traders), who are enemies to deceit and chicanery, come together in a generally
beneficent [non-profit making] association and begin to offer one another their mutual help in
promoting their joint welfare. To which effect we, the undersigned, hereby duly invite and urge
every righteously minded person to henceforward make known their accession to this association by
adding their own signature [to this document].
No Transcription available.