Publishing Policies and Family Strategies. The Fortunes of a Dutch Publishing House in the 18th and early 19th Centuries

This study analyses the development of the Dutch publishers and booksellers firm Blussé in connection with the history of the Blussé family between 1745 and 1830. The book offers new insight in the organization of the book trade, the theory and practice of copyright, competition and cooperation among publishers, book prices and print runs, including advertising and marketing. The history of the company is linked with that of the family, using letters and other autobiographical writings. Education, marriage policies, reading practices are among the subjects studied. Within the context of cultural developments, the influence of the Enlightenment, and the political upheavals in the period in the Netherlands, this book is both a detailed book history and a broadly based study of cultural change in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.