ABSTRACT
The area of bookselling is the one that has caused most losses and disillusionment to the [European] speculators. They thought that under the aura of freedom the new republics would receive with enthusiasm all the recent philosophical works; they thought that the spirit that favoured the writing of L'Encyclopedic would reign in the regenerated America. Thus, they hurried to have the most famous works of that school translated by our emigrant men of letters, and the printing presses of London and Bordeaux sweated multiple editions of those books. But what happened? Since the American revolution was originally merely military, even if afterwards it resulted in independence, only a few military men bought the new books, and only when they were bound in beautiful covers; but schools and universities stayed with their Ripalda and their Heineceo. The respectable House of Ackermann in London, which sent one of their individuals with a great assortment of books to Mexico, still nowadays weeps for the immense losses it suffered, and we should notice that Mexico has a larger population and that in that country there is a stronger tendency towards democratic ideals than in Lima. *
Did foreign publishers fail because of the failure of 'democratic ideals' in early-independent Spanish America? This testimony, illustrative as it is, looks
1 'El ramo de la libreria es el que ha ocasionado mas perdidas y desengafios a los
especuladores. Creyeron estos que bajo el aura de la libertad debian acogerse con entusiasmo en las nuevas republicas todas las obras celebres de la filosofia del ultimo siglo; imaginaronse que el espiritu que precedio a la redaction de la Enciclopedia debia reinar en la America regenerada. Asi pues, se apresuraron a mandar traducir a nuestros literates emigrados las obras famosas de aquella escuela, y las prensas de Londres y Burdeos sudaron multiplicadas ediciones. Pero £que sucedio? Como la revolution de America ha sido por de pronto meramente militar si bien luego se ha convertido en cuestion de independencia, solo algunos militares compraron los nuevos libros, y aun eso, solo cuando se les ofrecian cubiertos de ricas pastas; pero las escuelas y universidades se quedaron con su Ripalda y su Heineceo. La respetable casa de Ackermann de Londres, que envio a uno de sus individuos con abundante surtido de libros a Mexico, llora aun en el dia las inmensas perdidas que ha sufrido, y hay que advertir que en Mexico hay mas poblacion y mas tendencia a las ideas democraticas que en Lima.'Jacinto de Salas y Quiroga, 'Estado politico y comercial de la Republica Peruana' (quoted in Llorens, p. 156).
