Edmund Burke and the Booksellers' Bill: an Exercise in the History of Copyright

In 1774, the House of Lords overturned a 1769 ruling regarding the copyright of books. Up until then under the Copyright Act of 1709 authors received statutory protection for a total period of twenty-eight years. Most authors sold their copyrights to booksellers that is modern day publishers. As a result, a small group of London booksellers kept copyrights to themselves and formed a virtual monopoly. After the 1774 decision, booksellers petitioned for parliamentary relief and a committee was appointed to consider their case. When a bill was introduced to mitigate the Lords’ decision a pamphlet war about copyright erupted. Edmund Burke took an active role in this controversy. In this paper, his position in favour of the booksellers is examined. Moreover, how Burke used the theory of property rights to defend the booksellers’ monopoly will be illustrated. The purpose of this examination is twofold: first to determine the conditions under which Burke favoured monopoly and how his stance on this issue can be reconciled with his overall economic thought. And second to use his arguments in favour of the Booksellers’ bill as a case-study and window to eighteenth-century book economics in Britain.