Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/351

Rh lisher at 4s. 2d. or 4s. 6d. is retailed by the bookseller to the public at 6s. In the first case he makes a profit of forty-four, in the second of thirty-three per cent. Even the smaller of these two rates of profit on the capital employed, appears to be much too large. It may sometimes happen, that when a book is inquired for, the retail dealer sends across the street to the wholesale agent, and receives, for this trifling service, one fourth part of the money paid by the purchaser; and perhaps the retail dealer takes also six months' credit for the price which the volume actually cost him.

(382.) In section 256, the price of each process in manufacturing the present volume was stated: we shall now give an analysis of the whole expense of conveying it into the hands of the public.