Trade journal

“ From 1875 to 1885 paper cheapened rapidly, and it has been estimated that the introduction of wood pulp trebled the circulation of newspapers in England. Keen competition in the paper trade also did much to lower prices. At the same time the prime cost of newspaper production was increased by the introduction of improved machinery into the printing office. The growth of advertisements must also be taken into account in considering the evolution of the halfpenny journal. ”

“ The society has over 6000 members, and its usefulness may be gauged by the fact that it answers an average of 40,000 credit inquiries every year. Trade protection societies formed themselves, as early as 1848, into an association, which was at first an association of secretaries, but in 1865 was transformed into an association of societies. The association issues a quarterly journal called the Trade Protection Journal. ”

“ Much interest seems to have been shown by farmers in sugar-beet culture, in investigations of which more than three hundred of them are cooperating with the station, and two hundred in experiments with fertilizers.
NOTES.
An important feature in the evolution of trade journalism is pointed out in the presidential address of E.C. Brown, of the American Trade Press Association, in the establishment of small trade journals, covering limited fields. Such industries as brickmaking, stenography, advertising, acetylene, hospital practice, etc., are ably represented by their respective trade journals ”

“ He returned to England in 1875 to resume his connection with the ‘Bookseller,’ of which he ultimately became editor, as well as of the ‘Reference Catalogue,’ mentioned above. In 1880, in conjunction with his father, he started the ‘Stationery Trades' Journal.’ He took an active interest in all trade questions, especially those of a social and charitable character. ”

“ Our industry has shared in this increase of foreign trade, but not to the extent that it ought. Our own markets being the best in the world, manufacturers in past years have naturally confined their efforts practically to them, but we have reached such proportions in our ability to manufacture all kinds of paper that it seems as though there was never a more opportune time to explore and make conquest of the foreign paper market. ”

“ The local dealers say that the system of the great publishing houses is unsatisfactory as to prices and discounts. Private persons can get the same discounts as the dealers, and can very likely, by ordering a list, buy more cheaply than of the local bookseller, and therefore, as a matter of business, he says that it does not pay to keep books; he gives up trying to sell them, and turns his attention to “varieties.” Another reason for the decline in the trade may be in the fact that comparatively few booksellers are men of taste in letters, men who read, or keep the run of new publications. ”

“ Books on Trades should form an interesting series for the collector. Works on 'Dialling' and Clock-making are frequent enough, but I do not remember to have come across very many books which treat of the locksmith's art or coach-making, though such volumes appear from time to time in the catalogues. There must be treatises on almost every trade under the sun; our book-hunter possesses a small volume which deals with the making of sealing-wax and wafers. Old treatises on brewing must be plentiful, as doubtless are volumes on all the larger and more important industries ”

“ It encourages the importation of the materials of manufacture, in order that our own people may be enabled to work them up more cheaply, and thereby prevent a greater and more valuable importation of the manufactured commodities. I do not observe, at least in our statute book, any encouragement given to the importation of the instruments of trade. When manufactures have advanced to a certain pitch of greatness, the fabrication of the instruments of trade becomes itself the object of a great number of very important manufactures. ”

“ The “book-trade” was held to include all the dealers and artisans who were concerned with the production and distribution of manuscripts; that is, the copyists and their employers, the binders, the illuminators, the sellers of parchment, and, later, the manufacturers of paper. While the control of the university was exercised over the entire book-trade, the interest of the authorities was naturally much keener in regard to the divisions having to do with the production of books than in the work of the booksellers. ”

“ Another means for introducing a new invention on the market, is in "write-ups" of the same in the daily papers, magazines, and trade papers; as very unfortunately a good many people would not pay any attention to circulars, and would not find time to grant a personal interview to a solicitor, yet they do look up 24 printed matter in the form of a newspaper, magazine, or trade-paper, and very often get their own views on any subject from the general tone of the article they read. ”

“ The Paper trade is essentially a hand-to-mouth trade in all branches except the news print department. In general, purchases are made only as required, and fluctuations in price effect but slightly the demand. In short, an analysis of the production of the Paper Mills of the country, taking into consideration stocks on hand, is specially significant as an index of current trade conditions. ”

“ Again, we say the British paper-makers tell us they must infallibly be ruined if they are brought into competition with the foreigner, because the foreigner has access to the better rag-market—and because paper cannot be made out of any other material than rags—that is, so that the trade shall be remunerative. ”

“ After the introduction into Italy of printing, the association of the paper-makers with books became still more important, and not a few of the original printer-publishers were formerly paper manufacturers, and continued this branch of trade while adding to it the work of manufacturing books. ”

“ The American war, immediately following the repeal of the paper duty, threatening a cotton famine, the Paper-makers gladly availed themselves of a new material, "Esparto," which I had for some time previously been ineffectually endeavouring to introduce, and adopting my process for its treatment, this material entered speedily into consumption, and has tended more than anything else to promote the development of the Paper-trade by enabling the manufacturers to keep pace with the rapidly increasing demand. ”

“ The few strong publications of large National circulation would occupy much of the field abandoned by their weaker brethren, and there would be a strong tendency toward monopoly in the periodical business, with all its attendant evils and dangers.
Trade and scientific papers would suffer grievously. They appeal to relatively few people in each center of population, and depend for circulation upon their ability to reach all the people throughout the country who are interested in their particular trade or science. ”

“ Or make it eighteen. No news will come from the front anyway. For the catalogues that were sent to [254] London were thrown in the Dump long, long ago, and the great Trade Getter has never sent in one single, solitary, stingy order. Long thrilling Reports that had about them the peculiar metallic ring of the Generality-Report, just as though each of the ten manufacturing suckers had received an exact copy, were received every month for a few months.
Then about the fifth month they began to shrink in size and promise. About the seventh month, Dear Firm got merely a post card. ”

“ It seems probable that, if the present conditions of trade are maintained, American book-makers need not be especially troubled ten years hence by the competition of books manufactured in England, and that, if the various duties affecting the manufacture could be abolished, we could well spare the duty on books themselves. ”

“ The costliness of the skilled labour required for the production of manuscripts, and the many obstacles and difficulties in the way of their distribution, caused the development of the book-trade to proceed but slowly. It was the case, nevertheless, and particularly in Germany, that a very considerable demand for literature of certain classes had been developed among the people before the close of the manuscript period, a demand which was being met with texts produced in constantly increasing quantities and at steadily lessening cost. ”

“ Newsprint has been the miracle of the industry. Despite all of the schemes which have been published stating the many ways in which the newspapers were curtailing their consumption and saving paper, the demand is to-day as strong as it ever was. The mills are shipping more than 100 per cent. of their production—drawing from their reserve supplies, so that these have dwindled to a dangerous degree. It would be hard to name a real quotation for newsprint at the present time for the only lots to be had are not those in the hands of jobbers who are asking as much as they can get for their stock. ”

“ But another paper, written in the same year, and preserved in the same volume of State Papers, [13] is even more interesting, for it shows the position of every man in the trade. This is headed—
A Survey of the Printing Presses with the names and numbers of Apprentices, Officers, and Workemen belonging to every particular press. Taken 29 July 1668. (See Appendix III.) . [Pg 209]
From this we learn that the largest employer in the trade at that time was James Fletcher, who kept five presses, and employed thirteen workmen and two apprentices. ”

“ Moreover, the increasingly important part which is played by advertising in the trades where competition is keenest is followed by a very singular result, which seems at first sight to contravene the growing specialism or differentiation of function that marks modern trade. Finding that goods advertise one another, manufacturers are frequently induced to add new departments to their business, expanding the scope and variety of their productions. In retail trade this tendency is widely operative. ”

“ Typewriters, adding machines, sewing machines, shoes and the divers products of the protean Standard Oil Company seem to be the most vigorous representatives of American industrial activity abroad. Nevertheless the recent statistics show that our experts are on the up-grade, and evidences of growing interest in our export trade multiply daily. ”

“ In this book, printed at the very end of the century in Paris, where the book trade had for centuries been highly organized, it is natural to find printer and publisher clearly separated, both being tradesmen working for gain. The lines for such a distinction already existed in the days of manuscripts, the scribes and the stationers belonging to quite separate classes, though they might assume each other’s functions. In the earliest days of printing the craftsmen were, as a rule, their own publishers ”

“ The telegraph has, moreover, enabled commerce to dispense with a whole army of middlemen, commission merchants, and brokers, who were necessary under the old system, but who have now been released to find more useful employments. Merchants in the wool trade, for example, send their buyers to the countries of production on fast steamers, transmit their instructions by telegraph, and bring the wool directly to the country of consumption, cutting out entirely the middlemen of London, Antwerp, and Havre, who once controlled the trade. ”

“ Securing these new names is simply a part of the natural development of the catalogue trade. Wisely considered, the development is both from within and from without. From within, by adding new stocks to the business from time to time, as space, resources and abilities permit; and from without, by adding new and increased numbers to the purchasing list. From within, by getting more goods to sell; and from without, by getting more people to buy. Not only continuing to sell the same goods to the same people, but getting more goods for these same people, and more people to buy these goods. ”

“ Hundreds of men have joined the colors leaving most of the plants short of help and owing to abnormal demand and the embargoes which prevail, abroad—all due to the war,—there is not enough of that very necessity commodity—white paper—to go around. This in brief is, the exact state of affairs. In the past Canadian mills were looking for a market for their surplus product and were glad to make contracts covering a long period of time. News print was looked upon as staple and the variation in price from year to year was small indeed. Now the manufacturers do not know which way to turn. ”

“ During the past two years there has been even a greater proportionate increase. Considering the126 fact that ten years ago the exportation of paper was practically unknown, it will be quickly seen that we are fast forging to the front and taking the position in foreign fields which, as the leading paper manufacturing country of the world, we now fully merit. Our products are generally at a premium in foreign markets, and American genius, enterprise, and versatility are everywhere recognized. ”

“ In each trade there is an established course of business; and, however obvious may be some better course, the difficulties of altering the settled routine are, if not insurmountable, still very considerable. Take, for instance, the commerce of literature. In days when a letter cost a shilling and no book-post existed, there grew up an organization of wholesalers and retailers to convey books from publishers to readers: a profit being reaped by each distributing agent, primary and secondary. ”