A BRIEF HISTORY of PRINTING
 
PART II
THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF PRINTING
 
BEING A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF THE PRINTING INDUSTRY FROM 1450 TO 1789, INCLUDING GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS, CENSORSHIP, INTERNAL CONDITIONS and INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

BY

FREDERICK W. HAMILTON, LL.D.

EDUCATIONAL DIRECTOR

PUBLISHED BY THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

UNITED TYPOTHETAE OF AMERICA

1918

In this volume, as in the preceding, an effort hasbeen made to give the reader some idea of theactual conditions of the printing industry in Europefrom the time of the invention down to the FrenchRevolution. Attention has been devoted to the organizationand conditions of the industry, the circumstancesunder which the work was done, and theactual life and work of the men who did it.

The method of treatment chosen has been topicalrather than chronological. It has been thought thata series of pictures of different aspects of the industrywould be of more value than the ordinary detailedstudy of periods, of schools, and of the actual workproduced at various times which is rather suited toadvanced students than to beginners. This methodof treatment necessarily involves a certain amount ofrepetition, but probably less than would be requiredif an attempt were made to fit the same informationinto a chronological framework.

To an extent even greater than in the previousvolume the writer has endeavored to reconstruct inpart at least the general conditions of the time. Theeconomic history of printing or, indeed, any history ofprinting is a part of the general history of the period.It so happens that the peculiar conditions of the printingindustry had a very marked effect in the changeswhich took place in the industrial world in the sixteenthand seventeenth centuries. The attempt is madeto show the working of these influences in the treatmentof certain parts of the subject. The main purpose,however, throughout has been to give the young printerof today an idea of the work and life of the old printers,who were very human men, engaged, though under differentconditions, in the same struggle to earn theirbread and butter which occupies our attention today.