ABSTRACT
To examine the changing costs of labour, printing and raw materials from 1830-1939 I located surviving publishers' and printers' archival sources which covered as much of that period as possible. The sixth year was chosen as the sampie year because evidence from the analysis of the rate of book publication in the eighteenth century showed abnormal peaks at the first and fifth year of the decade probably because undated publications had been rounded up to the nearest decade or half-decade year by the compilers of the catalogue. Sampling every sixth year of the decade avoided this methodological quirk and aided co mparisons with external statistical sources.
