A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä
Print culture and economic constraints : A quantitative analysis of book prices in eighteenth-century Britain
Tekijät: Tiihonen, Iiro; Lahti, Leo; Tolonen, Mikko
Kustantaja: Elsevier
Julkaisuvuosi: 2024
Journal: Explorations in Economic History
Tietokannassa oleva lehden nimi: Explorations in Economic History
ISSN: 0014-4983
eISSN: 1090-2457
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2024.101614
Verkko-osoite: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2024.101614
Rinnakkaistallenteen osoite: 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.
Ladattava julkaisu This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |  |
