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Het Boek. Serie 2. Jaargang 31 (1952-1954)

Het Boek. Serie 2. Jaargang 31

(1952-1954)– [tijdschrift] Boek, Het–rechtenstatus Gedeeltelijk auteursrechtelijk beschermd

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The geographic extent of the Dutch book trade in the seventeenth century1)

The Netherlanders have always been great traders. Living at the mouths of great rivers, the Scheldt, the Maas, and the Rhine, their advantages for inland trade were great and such trade developed early. That the Dutch of the seventeenth century also developed an extensive sea trade in Europe and on the dim far edges of the world is common knowledge. The stock of an overland caravan generally consists of light, expensive, or luxury items. The seventeenth century Netherlanders were quick to seize upon and exploit the great advantage of sea trade, the ability to transport low priced, heavy, or bulky materials at a profit. Their herring fish was such an article, shiploads being sold in Spain and France. After having caught the herring off the British coast, the Dutch were also so outrageous as to sell them in English ports, to the great anguish of the British. The grain trade from the Baltic was another commerce in a bulk commodity, developed by the Dutch into a trade of first importance. Going in ballast or carrying salt (another bulk commodity) from France, their ships took on grain in such Baltic ports as Königsberg, Danzig, or Reval to be transported either to warehouses in Amsterdam, there to await a favourable market, or sold directly in France or Spain. Another branch of the Baltic trade carried iron, copper, and fabricated steel from Swedish ports. In time, the trade in grain, by fortuitous circumstances, was extended to Italy. From thence the ships often returned with marble for ballast, which, as the visitor to Holland will see, has had felicitous results. Holland is a province of clay, sand, and peat - a stone being treasured up there as Dr. Johnson said like a stick was treasured up in Scotland - yet the stately houses of the Prinsen-

gracht and Keizersgracht are frequently adorned with marble floors, and marble wainscot, a memorial to this Italian grain grade. The whale fishing was, of course, another exploitation of the capacity to trade by sea over a distance. It was from this solid base of large scale trading in bulk goods - timber from Norway, cannon from Sweden, as well as in the commodities already mentioned - that the Dutch were able to accumulate venture capital to erect a superstructure of trade in the two Indies, China, Formosa, Japan, the Cape, and other exotic regions; and this was not the only superstructure so erected. In time, the commerce in bulk goods having established far flung trading routes and furnished them with ample shipping, there developed a trade in small, or expensive, commodities, carried at low additional cost on the ships already plying the trade routes. The whale fishers took along trinkets and jewelry for trade with the natives along Arctic shores; the herring fishers supplied the Shetland Islanders with necessary household articles, and an East Indiaman wallowing along to the Indies with a cargo of gold, cloth, soldiers, and civil servants might also have on board for speculation a few paintings of respectable burgomasters or of the Dutch countryside.

Booksellers and publishers profited from the web of communications woven by Dutch merchants, and a trade in books printed in Holland flowed along sea routes as well as over time-honored land routes. As Professor Kernkamp has said, it would have been pointless to print in Amsterdam books in Armenian without transportation to, and firm trade relations with, the Near East. Similarly, since the Jews in Holland in the 17th century were almost all Sephardic, it would have been pointless to print large editions of German-Jewish books if it had not been for firm long established trade relations in the Baltic, or to print English Bibles without a distribution system in England. The Dutch book trade was part of the fabric of trade in general, following the old overland trade routes and the newer sea routes. As a result, Holland manufactured books in Swedish, Armenian, Hungarian, Spanish, Italian, French, English, Yiddish, Arabic, and other oriental tongues; and there were issued there numerous books in Greek and Latin, thus exploiting the existence of an international scholarly language (Latin) and a Europe wide interest in Greek.

Books were not only an article of Dutch trade, but were also an article of Dutch manufacture. Although primarily a trading people, the Netherlanders were also (in spite of a dearth of materials) manufacturers of importance. It was a commonplace of the 17th century, that although the Dutch had no timber, they were the great shipbuilders; without sheep, they nevertheless were important cloth manufacturers; possessed the great sugar refineries, but no sugar cane in their own country; without mulberry trees or worms, they yet drew the silk market to Amsterdam. Without pressing the analogy too far one might say that books followed the pattern of importing raw materials and exporting finished products, in the sense that, although Dutch writers were vigorous and prolific, Dutch printers were adepts at importing the writings of foreigners, printing them, or reprinting them, and selling them again in the country of origin. One first edition of Galileo bears a Dutch imprint, and several of his books were reprinted there. Descartes' works were printed in Leiden and Amsterdam; Hobbes, Racine, Molière, Guez de Balzac, John Selden, Casaubon, Ménage, Gassendi, Bossuet, La Fontaine and other contemporary non-Dutch writers were published in Holland also.

Part of the reason for widespread trade was that 17th century Netherlanders were ever on the alert for what might be called starved markets. A bad harvest year in Italy brought Dutch grain ships to the ports of that country. A Spanish colonial policy compelling Spanish Americans to buy non-existent Spanish articles from non-existent Spanish traders, brought Dutch interlopers into the Americas. Similarly the Dutch brethern in the book trades were alert to the possibilities of selling court scandals suppressed in Paris, royalist tracts suppressed by roundheads, or Jansenist works proscribed by Jesuits. Whether a scarcity of goods was due to a bad harvest, lack of printing equipment, monopoly or proscription there was an appropriate Dutch trader ready and willing to take advantage of it. This trader was often better able to seize the advantage because his goods were cheap. The dominant interests in Holland were the trading interests rather than manufacturing interests. The outcries of seventeenth century guilds against importation of foreign labor, against goods made by interlopers in the craft, and lamenting the lack of tariff protection were as numerous as they were ineffectual.

Vlekke notes that hoards of beggars were let loose on the streets of Dutch cities in the evenings - not professional beggars, but children who took this means of supplementing their meager wages in order to get enough to eat1). The great object of Holland's ruling class was simply to obtain a sufficient supply of cheap goods - cordage, linen, ships, books, etc. - to trade successfully overseas.

With these few preliminary remarks on how and why the Dutch book trade spread over Europe, it is of some interest to note where it spread to. At the outset, we may infer that when a Dutch printer issued a book in German, English, Spanish, French, Armenian, or Hungarian, the chances were he intended it for a foreign market as well as for foreign residents in his own country. When a book printed in Holland purported to be printed in Paris, Lyon, or Cologne, the inference is that it was intended for consumption abroad where a Dutch imprint might hinder its sale. Books issued in Holland in foreign languages - books issued with false imprints or with no imprint - are tangible evidence of a widespread trade. Such evidence is sufficiently abundant, but there is more concrete information at hand. The Stationers' Register, Lepreux's Gallia Typographica, the documents gathered by Kleerkooper and Van Stockum, and a number of other works contain actual records of Dutch books exported to foreign lands. By far the most useful sources are the documents gathered by Kleerkooper and Van Stockum, consisting of more than 1700 printed pages2). To a large extent these are notary records, but the compilers have also included material in law codes, contemporary newspapers, and in other documentary sources. As is readily apparent by glancing at the citations, this article is largely based on these documents.

Following the route of the grain ships, which was perhaps the line of least resistance, the book trade to the Baltic ports became an important one. A good proportion of surviving documents concern the sale of Yiddish books in that region. As has been said, the Jews of Amsterdam were nearly all Sephardic throughout the century. Yiddish works, therefore, were not intended for local consumption. When four Amsterdam merchants agreed to

print 6300 copies of a Yiddish Bible, the copies were obviously for foreign export1). Such Yiddish books would not, of course, all be sold in Baltic ports; but there is additional evidence of the sale of Yiddish books there. Some nine years after the contract noted above, Messrs. Blaeu and Bake entered into a contract with Rabbi Nachman whereby it was agreed that Nachman would go to Poland, there to sell as many copies as possible (within certain restrictions mentioned) of a 4000 copy edition of a Yiddish Bible. Nachman was empowered also to trade the Bibles for stavewood, pipestems, potash, red or Russia leather, and also masts, provided that the purchasers of the Bibles delivered these articles at their own cost at Danzig2). About 1673, a similar arrangement was entered into between a group of Dutch booksellers on the one hand and Rabbi Meijer Frankel on the other. Copies of a Yiddish Bible were to be delivered to the Rabbi at Danzig, and he was to sell them there3). A telling indication of the extent of the book trade is the fact that in 1685, after deliberation, the city government of Breslau decided not to establish a printing press ‘because in Holland in Amsterdam there are three important Jewish presses from which books are brought to Danzig and Memel by sea. In this way the Jews of Poland and Lithuania are furnished with these books’4). Aside from the trade in Yiddish and Hebrew books, there are other documents concerning the book trade in the Baltic. When Nicholaes Nosser Vant Waater died in 1702, an inventory was made of his estate, and therein it was noted that great numbers of his books were in the hands of individuals (probably agents) at Danzig, Stettin, Stralsund, Greifswald, Bremen, Lubeck, Hamburg, Cologne, and Copenhagen5). In other documents it is asserted that Johannes Janssonius van Waesberghe Gilliszoon was renowned not only in the Netherlands, but in all of Germany; that with his brother he maintained an important book store in Danzig, it being, in fact, the most important one there; that in addition,

he maintained a lesser but still important store at Leipzig, one at Frankfurt, and a distinguished shop in Amsterdam1).

Commercial relations with Sweden also included a trade in books. Queen Christina sought to have Daniel Elzevier establish a shop in her country, and although he did not do so, he did journey to Sweden, and Johannes Janssonius did actually establish a shop there. Christina's predecessor, Gustaf Adolf, was also interested in attracting Dutch printer-booksellers to his country and imported Pieter van Selow, printer and typefounder, who issued a number of books there, some of which were in Russian2). Another vestige of the Swedish trade was an evidence sworn to before an Amsterdam notary affirming that Johannes Crellius, master bookprinter of the city, had contracted to print a Bible in Swedish for Hendrik Keijser3).

Turning toward the west, one notes that relations between the United Provinces and England were many and varied. For a great part of the seventeenth century and, indeed, perhaps for all of it, the United Provinces surpassed England as a manufacturing and commercial power. The English complained bitterly when the Dutch broke into their monopolies, bested them in competition, and drained money out of England. Netherlanders carried on a brisk business in Puritan tracts, royalist polemics, newspapers, scholarly works; and a steady trade in maps and books about the sea. An indication of the latter fact is that throughout the eighteenth century in England a book of sailing directions was known as a ‘wagoner’ because of the widely known ‘...Spieghel der Zeevaerdt’ of Lucas Waghenaer. But because the Bible monopoly supplied the English with too few copies at too high a price, Bibles were the backbone of the Dutch book trade in England. An interesting incident in this connection concerns John Fell, who, in 1671-72, zealous to place the Oxford press on a secure footing, proposed to utilize the University privilege to print Bibles, which had been temporarily relinquished. The King's printer, apprehensive of Fell's design, complained there was little money in printing Bibles because of ‘the Hollanders continuall poureing in vast numbers of Bibles’, so that they

sold not a tenth part of what they formerly did. Existing records bare out the statement. Thomas Loof, Amsterdam printer, had 1600 English Bibles in 1641, and empowered Thomas Stafford to sell them1). Hugo Fitz, merchant of Amsterdam, in 1644, purchased six thousand English Bibles from Jan Frederickszoon Stam and Thomas Craffort, paying for them in goods2). Joseph Athias, widely known printer of Amsterdam, boasted that ‘For several years I myself printed more than a million Bibles for England and Scotland. There is no plow boy or servant girl there without one’3). On 22 September 1670, Athias obtained an exclusive privilege from the States of Holland to print English Bibles for the period of 15 years4). The previous year, Athias had called upon Christoffel Gangelt to make restitution for selling Bibles which had been left in his warehouse as security - Gangelt having shipped many to Ostend and from there to England where they were sold5). In 1649, Edmont Blake negotiated to purchase from Elias Aernoldts of Amsterdam 15.000 copies of an English Bible6). In 1671 Susanna Veselaer, Steven Swart, and Joannes Ward entered into a joint project to print an English Bible7). In Scintilla, or a light broken into darke warehouses, reprinted in Arber's... Registers of the Company of Stationers are these entries8):

‘Holland Bible in 12[mo] sold at 2.sh. in quires, better than the London one of 1639 sold at 4sh. pitty the manufactory should be carryed thither by deare selling here.

Latin Bibles 12[mo] of Amsterdam, printed well, and sold at 2sh. in quires, and good paper. London Latin Bible 12[mo] printed with a popish Index, sold at 4sh. in quires, and not under.

Observe London Stationers that bought of the Lattin Holland

Bibles, punished in the High Commission for buying Lattin Bibles from Holland, a yeare before even any were printed in London...’

Documents indicating a trade in books other than Bibles are fairly numerous. The papers on Daniel Elsevier's attempts; first, to protect his right to sell Grotius' works in England; and second, to extricate himself from the project to publish Milton's Latin state letters make interesting reading. Joan Blaeu printed for Robert Scott, an English bookseller with many continental connections, La vie du général Monk, duc d'Albemarle..., and Scott and Blaeu sought and obtained from the States of Holland an exclusive privilege for fifteen years to print the works of John Selden1). The heirs of Joan Blaeu printed in 1679 Hugo Grotius' Opera Theologica, edited by Grotius' son and dedicated to Charles II, for Moses Pitt of London2). On 20 July 1699, Wetstein held a book sale. He listed the towns and booksellers where the catalogue of the collection might be had; namely, Wesel, Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and also at the shop of S. Smith in London3). On 12 May 1660, John Tuthill, a bookseller of Yarmouth, entered into a contract with Arnold Colom, a printer and bookseller of Amsterdam, whereby Colom was to print for Tuthill 500 copies of a Straits book in English; that is, a sailing guide to the Mediterranean, and to print one hundred copies for himself. Each agreed not to spoil the market for the other by printing, or having printed, additional copies and also that for the succeeding twelve years neither would sell a copy for less than six guilders the bound copy4). Violet Barbour remarks that ‘In 1625 a consignment of “seditious books brought from Flanders” - for which we may read “theological tracts of a Calvinist nature from Holland” - was smuggled ashore in Scotland before the ship which brought them could be searched’5).

In the case of France, although the trade was undoubtedly more extensive than that with England, not as many documents

concerning it are noted here. It is well known that the Elzevier firm sent an agent to Paris fairly regularly, and from existing documents it appears that Daniel Elzevier sold books in Nantes, Tours, Saumur, and Vannes. There are also several indications of trade in books from Holland at Rouen. A letter from the Chancellor to one M. Feydeau de Bron (27 February 1688) indicates that Dutch booksellers, though not actually in Normandy, perhaps had agents there. ‘There has been given here an advis from Rouen’, the letter reads, ‘to the effect that one Acher, printer of Dieppe who had retired to Holland because of his religion has returned there with a great many wicked books which he distributes everyday by means of placing them in herring casks; that he has some still on board boats in the river; and that he has sold some to a merchant of Chartre who comes to distribute them at Paris. I shall have the merchant of Chartre observed and if it is found that the information is true, I shall let you know...’1).

On another occasion it was alleged by the inspectors for the Rouen book trade that the city had a great number of Protestant booksellers who continually received bales and packages of books from England, Holland and other places where were printed prohibited books and libels which one would not dare to print in France; and that later these books were distributed in all the cities of that country. A refutation of this statement was made to the extent that in October 1666, one M. Le Bourgeois said that as for receiving bales of books from foreign countries, it was not a business peculiar to Protestants, and indeed the Catholic booksellers received more of such bales than Protestants2). There are also documents printed by Kleerkooper showing that Jan Jacobs Schipper of Amsterdam, on 16 June 1663, agreed to print the ‘Consilia generalia’ for two merchants of Lyon, George Remeus and Horatius Boisadt3).

The printing of books in Hungarian and their sale in Hungary was also a profitable trade. Hungarian books were printed at Leiden as early as 1627 by Johannes à Woerden, and in the same

city by Wilhelmus Christianus in 1637. The great opportunity came in printing Hungarian Bibles for there was actually a Bible shortage in Hungary in part of the seventeenth century1).

A Hungarian Bible was printed by Joannes Janssonius in 1645. In the following year he brought out a New Testament in small format2), and thereafter a number of Hungarian Bibles were printed. In the century, in addition to the printers mentioned, Hungarian books were also issued by Johannes Wellens and Johannes Gijselaar at Franeker; Petrus Leffen at Leiden; Johannes Noortdijk, Johannes Waesberghe, Johannes Swol, Ernestus Voskul, and Theodorus Ackersdijck and Gysbertus Zyll at Utrecht3).

The printing of Armenian books at Amsterdam has already received a good deal of attention. It seems obvious that, although there was an Armenian colony in Amsterdam4), much of the work produced was intended to be sold in the Near East. This was probably the case with the Armenian Bible produced by the Armenian printer, Matthew Avac, in 1666. Kleerkooper also reproduces a document from the files of the Notaris, F. Tixerandet (dated 3 March 1694) which says in part that a shipment of 6.000 Armenian books entrusted to the Armenian, Paolo Alexan, and shipped to Smyrna were lost in the eartquake there5).

The relations with Belgium were, of course, extensive. Because the books which were sent to Johannes Janssonius by François Viveen at Brussels fell in the water and were spoiled there is a record of the event6), and incidentally an item added to the record of Janssonius' business transactions in Brussels. Another Amsterdam bookseller, Frederick van Metelen, entered into an agreement with his creditors, 16 September 1694, to pay them 17% on his debts and mentioned among his creditors Joan Heck and Jacobus Woons of Antwerp7).

The relations with Germany, as is known, were close. The most important single event probably for Dutch booksellers was the

Frankfort Book Fair. Their important position there is indicated by the fact that in 1669, they threatened the Frankfurt council that if they were not freed from harassing regulations, the fair would be boycotted by Dutch dealers. At least 135 Dutch booksellers visited the fair during the century, some of them making numerous visits. Additional evidence of Dutch trading in Frankfurt is also available in the form of a document printed by Kleerkooper in which the widow of Joan Blaeu assigned a debt, owed to her by a Frankfurt printer, to a bookseller of the same city. Also, Hondius took his atlases to the fair; and at other times the atlases were taken by Joannes Janssonius, or by Cornelis Claeszoon1). On 6 September 1679 the Brothers Dirk and Hendrik Boom entered into an agreement respecting their common property in books at Amsterdam, ‘at Frankfurt, in the Hague, and elsewhere...’2) previous to Dirk Boom's going to Frankfurt. It should also be noted that books were printed in Czech in Holland and these too had some sale abroad.

While one can find, as indicated, evidence of individual deals in books by Dutchmen in foreign countries, perhaps a better impression of the ramifications of Dutch trade is gained by noting the activities of Dutch book houses in the seventeenth century. An interesting example of booksellers with a Europe wide book trade is the house of Elzevier. Louis Elzevier, the first of the name to sell books in Holland, travelled often to the Frankfurt fair, as did his descendants after him for seventy-five years. He also journeyed to other German and Belgian cities. Paris was regularly visited by succeeding generations of Elzeviers on book buying and selling expeditions. Members of the family also sold books in Italy, England, and Sweden; and at one time the Elzeviers maintained a shop in Copenhagen. At the end of the century, another great house flourished. According to contemporaries there was not a principality or city in the whole of Europe where the Huguetans did not have agents, clerks, or warehouses. An agreement dated 1694 between Mark, Jean, and Pierre Huguetan has been preserved which lists debtors to the firm; among those owing are: ‘Sr. Delgas of London and Oxford 10.000, - guilders; Olenschlager at Frankfort, 14.107,10 guilders; in our shop at

Leipzig, 4.451,14; in Livorno 17.522,40 guilders; in Lisbon and Alicante 10.029,10’. It is stated also that they were debtors in Italy 34.879,90 francs; in Germany 14.344,11 marks; in England 902,13 pounds sterling; in Portugal 4.823,82 Rees; in Holland, France, Spain and Flanders, 37,801,14 guilders1).

In the inventory of the estate of Johannes Janssonius, it appears that he had shops at Frankfort, Danzig, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Berlin. In addition he possessed book stocks at Königsberg, Geneva, and Lyon. As a consequence of maintaining this international trade, on his death Janssonius left stocks of books in German, French, Italian, Dutch, and Latin2). When the widow of Bernard Picart died in 1736, there were listed under the heading debtors and outstanding claims: Garin Hamilton at Edinburg, 404:15 guilders; Jacques Regnier of London, 69:18; Gaspar du Change at Paris, 136:7:8 guilders; Durant at London 50; books on consignment to Pierre du Noyer at London 352:9; the heirs of Jeremias Wolf at Augsbourg 1; the account with Louis Suruge at Paris had not yet been balanced. Marsellus Larroan at London owed 1:19 guilders. Pierre Giffart at Paris owed 448 guilders, but not all for books; Doufils at Brussels 72:18:83).

The documents adumbrating an international Dutch book trade which have been noted here, considering the low survival record of commercial documents, must be a very small part of such instruments executed by bookdealers in the seventeenth century, but at least enough evidence has survived to show that it was not at all unusual for Dutch seventeenth century booksellers to trade in Poland, Lithuania, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Smyrna, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Czecho-Slovakia, England, and Scotland.

 

Claremont.

David W. Davies.


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