A Study of the Book Trade - Book Distribution Network in 8th and 19th Century England

在过去的三年里，我在牛津度过暑假，阅读和收集与我的研究有关的材料。我还利用大英图书馆和其他地方参加了几次会议。到目前为止，我已经写了关于这些主题的文章。(1)报纸和杂志上关于咖啡馆的报道。(2)流通图书馆与阅读大众的成长。(3)省书业和图书俱乐部。(4)下层阶级的读者和小册子。(5)书评的诞生。与这些主题相关的是，我现在对18世纪世纪出版的书籍的分销网络感兴趣。在我看来（这已经被一些杰出的学者证明了）。报纸所有者和他们的代理人不仅在发行报纸（各省每周出版）方面，而且在发行伦敦出版的书籍方面，都发挥了相当重要的作用。他们与伦敦的出版商有着密切的关系，这些书是用小船或手推车运来的。在到达报纸所有者，书籍被陈列在他们的商店供顾客浏览或购买。对于住在市中心以外的顾客，书是由所谓的报童通常骑马送去的。世纪初，随着出版商和书商的分离，出版图书的发行网络逐渐建立起来。这些研究报告将在以后出版，其中第一部分已经出版，第二部分即将出版。

For the past three years I spent summer vacations in Oxford reading and collecting materials -related to my research. I also used the British Library and other places also attending several conferences. So far I have written essays on these topics.(1) The spread of newspapers, and magazines in reference to coffee houses.(2) Circulating libraries and the growth of reading public.(3) The provincial booktrade and book clubs.(4) The lower class reader and the chapbooks.(5) The birth of the book reviews.Related to these topics I am now interested in the distribution network of books published in 18th century. In my view (and this has been proved by a few distinguished scholars.) the newspaper owners and their agents played a considerably significant role in distributing not only newspapers (published weekly in the provinces) but also the books publislred in London. They had a close relation with London publishers and the books were carried by a small boat or a cart. On reaching the newspaper owners, books were displayed in their shops for the customers to browse or buy. To the customers living away from the city center, books were delivered by what is called newsboys usually by riding horses. Proper distributing network of published books were established in early 19th century when the publisher and bookseller began to be separated from each other claiming their own right. These studies will be published hereafter, the first installment of which has been already published and the second is forthcoming.