The geography and control of the clandestine book trade in France, 1770-89

This article offers a preliminary reassessment of the geography and chronology of the clandestine book trade, based on a metadata analysis of Parisian customs confiscation records between 1770 and 1789. That metadata concerns the people and places associated with consignments of books confiscated by the Paris customs.1 In interpreting this data, it should be remembered that the French book trade was tightly controlled at every point. Entry ports and towns where books coming from abroad had to be sent for inspection were clearly defined by law.2 Means of onward transport were frequently prescribed: for example, bookdealers were only allowed to send books from Rouen to Paris by water" carriage by road was expressly forbidden.3 Even moving wholesale quantities of books around Paris was the monopoly of twenty-four licenced gagne deniers. 4 Bulk smuggling, as Mark Curran has shown recently, was a very costly and difficult enterprise and only very rarely attempted by desperate dealers.5 Wholesale consignments of books had generally to move through the established channels.