A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Print culture and economic constraints : A quantitative analysis of book prices in eighteenth-century Britain
Authors: Tiihonen, Iiro; Lahti, Leo; Tolonen, Mikko
Publisher: Elsevier
Publication year: 2024
Journal: Explorations in Economic History
Journal name in source: Explorations in Economic History
Article number: 101614
Volume: 94
ISSN: 0014-4983
eISSN: 1090-2457
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2024.101614
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2024.101614
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/457269107
Who could afford books in the late early-modern period? We explore how prices related to the demand for books in eighteenth-century Britain by analysing extensive bibliographic and socio-economic data based on Bayesian statistics and machine learning. Our results quantify in financial terms the difficulty of buying print products faced by most British households in the eighteenth century, and how this related to the varying levels of supply across price segments. We found no evidence of the well known claim that legislation would have led to lower prices. The inadequate supply and high cost of books make it likely that only higher-income households bought them regularly from the primary market.
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Funding information in the publication:
We thank the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Academy of Finland (decisions 333716 to MT; 348946 to LL) for funding the work on this article. The funders had no involvement in the collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing of the article or the decision to submit the article for publication.
