ABSTRACT
How did the nineteenth-century publishing industry expand? During the century the book came into its own as a mass medium in Britain. Not only were there rapid developments in printing and paper technology which led to this unprecedented growth in output, but the market expanded as the population level rose at horne and abroad. Reading the history of the century we might expect that improvements in literacy, in standards of living and in purchasing power would increase the demand for books, and that cheaper raw materials and printing machines would improve the industry's ability to supply that need. However, there is little direct evidence that enables us to weigh these observations, and it is the purpose of this chapter to provide an estimate of the growth in book production in Britain by combining evidence from external sources and data from the Book Production Cost database (BPCD). This growth in book production and exportation will be contextualized within the expansion of demand from the Empire. Following from this is an analysis of the role of different factors in the development of the industry in Chapter 3.
