The Paper Trade in Early Modern Europe : Practices, Materials, Networks

Daniel Bellingradt, Ph.D. (2010), Free University of Berlin, is Professor at the Institute for the Study of the Book at Erlangen-Nuremberg University, Germany. Co-editor of the journal Jahrbuch für Kommunikationsgeschichte, Daniel has published monographs, edited volumes and many articles.

This book attends to the most essential, lucrative, and overlooked business activity of early modern Europe: the trade of paper. Despite the well-known fact that paper was crucial to the success of printing and record-keeping alike, paper remains one of the least studied areas of early modern history. Organised into three sections, 'Hotspots and Trade Routes', 'Usual Dealings', and 'Recycling Economies', the chapters in the collection shed light on the practices, materials, and networks of the paper trade. Altogether, the collection uncovers the actors involved in the networks of paper production, transportation, purchase, and reuse, between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries and across the central and peripheral papermaking regions of Europe.