Bookselling in Norway is so organized as to eliminate almost all the risks to which English booksellers are exposed, to secure satisfactory results for the publishers, and to provide a fair reward for the author. Three trade organizations are in existence—The Publishers' Association, the National Association of Booksellers, and the Provincial Association of Booksellers, the qualification for membership in both the first and the last named being membership of the National Association. All booksellers must be members of the National Association. The Provincial Association includes all booksellers except those in Christiania. There is a National Board of Directors, composed of members of each association.
An applicant wishing to become a bookseller addresses the National Board. A young man of eighteen may become a bookseller when he is thirty; he has twelve years' training—four years as apprentice, eight years as assistant. Besides a knowledge of books, he must give security, and if he can prove he has sufficient funds in hand, the National Directors will give their permission for his beginning business on his own account; but the Directors have it in their power to decide whether a new bookshop is wanted in the district mentioned.
A town of 8,000 people would afford scope for two bookshops. Molde, familiar to English tourists, with a population of 2,200 has one thriving bookseller; Aalesund, with a population of 14,000, has three bookshops, and none of these booksellers need fear the incursion of other rivals.
The subscription to the National Association is 10 krone—about 12s.—per annum; and for the Association's weekly journal, 6s. per annum is charged. An annual list of publications is issued, and once in ten years a reference catalogue is issued, costing about 20s. All miscellaneous publications are issued in paper covers, and can be obtained in cloth, but the paper is the more popular format. The book buyer who decides that the paper volume is worth preserving, if so minded gets it bound in cloth or half leather, cloth costing 1s. 6d. and leather 2s. 6d. Retail prices are always net—there are no price cutters in Norway.
Publishers do not require to call on the trade: a descriptive circular is all that is necessary. The bookseller, after reading this, settles how many copies to buy outright, and additional copies can be had, subject to return. Prices of fiction range from 2s. 6d. to 4s. No reduction in the price of a book is allowed until five years after publication.
Payment for bought books is usually made half yearly, in January and July, and "on sale" volumes are accounted for in January, the volumes sold being paid for in March. The usual trade discount is 25 per cent., and when ten copies are bought an extra copy is included. School-books are always bought outright.
The Provincial Association has a central depot in Christiania, the stock of which company is owned by the Association members. The central depot "collects," packs, and dispatches to its members in the provinces, charging a scheduled rate for this service. Subscription books are all sold through the book stores, the only books disposed of outside recognized channels being religious publications handled by pedlars.
Term and Sale Catalogues
In the early seventies, while living at Holloway, it was my good fortune to meet Mr. Edward Arber, who also dwelt in that district. At that time he was making the transcript of the Registers at Stationers' Hall, and also publishing many reprints from Old English literature. It is to the many interesting conversations which I had with him while walking to Stationers' Hall Court, as we both at that time did, that I became more interested in some of the ways of the booksellers of previous generations, and in the introduction and use of the Booksellers' Catalogues. From the origin of printing in England in 1472 until 1526, it is quite a question whether any books which can be considered English literature were produced and printed in this country. The books sold here were mostly foreign productions, and, as numbers of them had an ultra-Romish tendency, it was a sure passport to a cruel death to possess a copy of many of the books of the period. Even these were produced in small octavo size, so that they could be carried in the owner's pocket without discovery.
The earliest register of books published was that by the Company of Stationers of London which began in 1554. This record was carried on until 1640, and it is from these catalogues, of which my friend Mr. Arber devoted the best part of twenty years in producing a transcript, in five folio volumes, that any bibliographer can now trace the authors and date of publication of much of the literature of that period. Following on from the before-mentioned period, there were various classified catalogues issued by different publishers, but in 1662-3 there was published a catalogue of books registered at Stationers' Hall from the 25th of December 1662 to the 25th of December 1663. This was the first attempt at the yearly issue of a complete list of books published, and, it is supposed, was brought to an end by the Plague and the Great Fire of London, which we know from "Pepys's Diary" and other records caused the destruction of an immense number of books to the value of some £200,000.
The next important series of Catalogues were "The Term Catalogues of Books printed in England." These were begun in November 1668 and ended in June 1709. Their title was evidently taken from a legal point of view, as they were divided into periods of Michaelmas Term, Hilary Term, Easter Term and the Trinity Term. The catalogues were very carefully reproduced in three volumes by Mr. Arber, and often gives me much material for speculative thought and reflection. In an introductory preface to these Term Catalogues, Mr. Arber writes: "There is something perfectly God-like in a wide survey for a given period of the entire literature of a great nation. It is like Moses viewing from Mount Pisgah the whole of the land of promise, and will help us to a better understanding of and a greater delight in the ages of the Restoration of William and Mary and of Queen Anne." These catalogues were intended to be an annual list of the books entered at Stationers' Hall, and no London stationer could lawfully publish a book until he had been made free of this Company.
In looking through the volumes of catalogues above referred to, I have been greatly interested in the titles of some of these old books. What food for thought must there have been in some of the following: "Sober Singularity, or an Antidote against Infection by the example of a Multitude"; "The Arts of Grandeur and Submission, a discourse concerning the behaviour of great men towards their inferiors"; "A Mirror or a Looking-glass for Saints and Sinners"; "The Ladies Blush"; "The Citizen turn'd Gentleman"; "Two Bulls roaring out Excommunication" (the first by Pope Paul III against Henry VIII; the other by Pope Pius V against Queen Elizabeth); "The Worth of a Penny; with the causes of the scarcity and the misery of the want thereof, in these hard and mercyless times"; "A Mirror that Flattereth not"; "A new Map of the Seat of the War in Germany so designed that you may presently know whether name of any place be in the map or not, and to see by inspection the distance of it from any other place without measuring by compasses"; "A Catholic Pill to purge Popery"; "England's Glory, or the great improvement of trade in general by a Royal Bank or Office of Credit to be erected in London, that they may give out bills of credit to a vast extent that all Europe will accept of rather than money." By the title it is evident that the finances of this country were as important to the world then as they are to-day.
This list could be increased to fill a volume of these quaint and interesting titles. It also contained a list of the publications of many books, which are popular to-day by great authors such as John Bunyan, R. Baxter, Milton, Shakespeare, and others. One could not help noticing the names of some publishers which are well known in the book trade to-day, such as A. & J. Churchill, Collins, J. Moxon, Richard Bentley, although of course they are not the successors to those of the Term Catalogue period. The Catalogue also states that in 1702 the "Daily Courant" was started, being the first daily newspaper to be published in London. I find also in these volumes what I think is the first notice of the odd copy being given. The advertisement runs as follows: "Proposals are now published for printing all the practical works of the late Rev. Mr. Robert Baxter in four volumes and in folio, many of which he wrote at the desire of Archbishop Ussher. To contain one thousand sheets of a large and very good paper, the price to subscribers four pounds, ten shillings in quires, the seventh book gratis, which reduces it to £3 12s. 2d. The proposals at large may be had of the Undertakers, Thomas Parkinson and others." Ever since this period, the giving of the odd copy has been frequently discussed, but it appears quite possible that by the introduction of the net system it has received a very serious stoppage which may lead to its final abolition.
The earliest book auction sale recorded took place at Warwick Court, Warwick Lane, in 1676, and in the following ten years only seventy-three auction sales of books are recorded as having been held. These auctions usually began at nine in the morning, and biddings might advance at a penny per time. The sales, however, differed from the sales of a later period. Formerly at the sales I attended the lots of books fell to the highest bidder, but although an auctioneer was usually present, he could only sell by a scale according to numbers, which was arranged by the publisher for whom the auctioneer acted. These delightful old catalogues are a continual source of inspiration to all booksellers, even if it is only the author or title of a book in which he is interested.