of the price of his book, even if it sell, because centralization requires
that all books shall be advertised in certain London journals that charge
their own prices, and thus absorb the proceeds of no inconsiderable
portion of the edition. Next, he finds the Chancellor of the Exchequer
requiring a share of the proceeds of the book for permission to use paper,
and further permission to advertise his work when printed.[1] Inquiring to
what purpose are devoted the proceeds of all these taxes, he learns that
the centralization which it is the object of the British cheap-labor
policy to establish, requires the maintenance of large armies and large
fleets which absorb more than all the profits of the commerce they
protect. The bookseller informs him that he must take the risk of finding
paper, and of paying the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the "Times" and
numerous other journals; that every editor will expect a copy; that the
interests of science require that he, poor as he is, shall give no less
than eleven copies to the public; and that the most that can be hoped for
from the first edition is, that it will not bring him in debt. His book
appears, but the price is high, for the reason that the taxes are heavy,
and the general demand for books is small. Cheap laborers cannot buy
books; soldiers and sailors cannot buy books; and thus does centralization
diminish the market for literary talent while increasing the cost of
bringing it before the world. Centralization next steps in, in the shape
of circulating libraries, that, for a few guineas a year, supply books
throughout the kingdom, and enable hundreds of copies to do the work that
should be done by thousands, and hence it is that, while first editions of
English works are generally small, so very few of them ever reach second
ones. Popular as was Captain Marryat, his first editions were, as he
himself informed me, for some time only 1,500, and had not then risen
above 2,000. Of Mr. Bulwer's novels, so universally popular, the first
edition never exceeded 2,500; and so it has been, and is, with others.
With all Mr. Thackeray's popularity, the sale of his books has, I believe,