List: members of the association
Membership list of the German Booksellers’Association, Leipzig, 1825
Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Leipzig

Trade

The A-Z of industrialisation

On a national-economic level

Look to expand your trade, / Force your way to the navel of the earth / And sell the cannibals / A knife and fork.

Franz Grillparzer, Epigramme, 1853

Trade is exchanging goods for other goods or money. Goods are purchased, transported, stored and sold. The wholesale business sells to other traders, while the retail sector sells to end customers. Selling mass-produced goods manufactured under the division of labour in factories (Factories) is unimaginable without trade. In the book trade, you have publishers who produce the books (Publisher), the wholesale book trade that acts as an intermediate dealer and the retail book trade (“your local book store”). Used books are sold on the second-hand book market.

The German bookselling industry formed a collective trade organisation in 1825: the German Booksellers’ Association. 235 paying, listed members enrolled in the year of the organisation’s foundation.