ABSTRACT
The history of publishing is usually an ancillary subject, supplying context for histories of literature or the diffusion of scientific knowledge. The most important development in publishing during these years was the establishment of something approaching international copyright. The publishing landscape had become increasingly complex and populated by different types of actors and interests; the book trade attempted to protect itself from capitalism’s forces of creative destruction; and an expansion in novel-production forced a reorganization of the way the genre was written and disseminated. The Berne Convention came into force at the end of the following year and applied to much of continental Europe, Britain, and much of Britain’s empire: India, the Cape Colony and Natal, Canada and Nova Scotia, the as-yet-unfederated Australian colonies, and New Zealand. Japan sent a delegation indicating its interest in signing on later, which it did in 1899.
