University of Virginia Library

Fortunately, Mathew Carey preserved many of the bills he paid. These state the costs of his equipment as well as the expenses of maintenance. Furthermore, they reveal the sources of supply available to a printer in Philadelphia at the end of the eighteenth century and in the beginning of the nineteenth. At that time, the present-day printers' wholesale supply house with its large stock did not exist. Therefore, Carey and the other American printers had to depend upon a variety of craftsmen. By identifying these men and noting the prices they charged, one can obtain an insight into printing house management of the period.

The history of printing is filled with proof that the production of printed matter has always required a sizeable investment. Some printers, like Gutenberg, borrowed money to get started; a few acquired their shops by marrying the widows of printers; other printers depended on patrons for subsidies. And then, of course, there were the courageous men with slender resources who managed to set up on their own. Mathew Carey was one of these.

Having determined to emigrate because of possible new prosecution for attacking the Irish government in his Volunteer's Journal, Carey, then twenty-four years old, landed in Philadelphia on November 1, 1784. In his Autobiography, he described his financial situation:

Lafayette's generosity thus supplied the capital needed to establish a printing office for Carey's projected newspaper. Funds from home did arrive, but the amount was a great disappointment — fifty pounds.[2]

In an advertisement dated December 9, Carey "respectfully informs the inhabitants of Philadelphia, that early in January next, he will publish a Newspaper in this city; the terms of which shall be advertised in a few days."[3] Having announced the paper, he found himself required to obtain a press in as short a time as possible. But presses were scarce and Carey's situation increasingly serious, when he learned that the shop of the late Robert Bell was to be sold at auction. The announcement of this sale, scheduled for December 28, included, among the items to be sold, a complete mahogany printing press, "little the worse for wear."[4] Carey saw his opportunity, but, at the sale, he had an unexpectedly difficult time:

One wishes that this vignette of the sale contained more detail, for it certainly was one of the most interesting auctions in the history of American printing. On the block was the shop of the well-known, if not notorious, Robert Bell; the opposing bidders were an established newspaper publisher and an upstart Irishman who later became one of the greatest of American book publishers. The hostility which began on that day eventually resulted in a duel in which Carey received a serious wound in the thigh although Oswald was uninjured. Despite Oswald's attempt to thwart him, Carey managed to bid in the components needed for his shop. They are listed in the bill which he preserved:                                                          

	Philada. Decr. 31st 1784
Mr Mathew Carey.
	Bought at Robt. Bell's Auction.
1 Chase demi			£ 1	--	--
2 pair of Cases		&c.mmat; 15/6 p	1	11	--
2 pair of ditto		&c.mmat; 3/- p	--	6	--
1 Rack			--	10	--
2 Double frames for Cases		&c.mmat; 11/-	1	2	--
2 Single frames for Ditto		9/-	--	18	--
1 Imposing Stone			2	10	--
1 Small ditto			--	7	6
A printing Press Complete			60	--	--
1 Lie Trough, Brush Lea			--	15	--
1 Single Chase			--	15	--
2 Composing Sticks		&c.mmat; 12/6	1	5	--
2 Ditto 1 lost		&c.mmat; 15/-	1	10	--
2 Chases for Advertisements		7/6 p	--	15	--
2 Ditto			--	8	4
5 Boards for wetting paper			--	7	6
6 Empty letter Boxes			--	5	--
31 Wooden Types 10 line pica			--	9	--
1 Sawing press with Keys			--	10	--
2 pair of Shears			--	2	6
Roman & Italic Types wt.	219lb	&c.mmat; 6d. p	5	9	6
Ditto Pie D°	152lb	&c.mmat; 5d p	3	3	4
3 pair of Cases		&c.mmat; 3/- p	--	9	--
Double pica	48lb.	&c.mmat; 12d p	2	8	--
			-------
				£86. 16. 8[6]

For this purchase, Carey paid sixty pounds cash and gave the administrators a thirty-day note for the balance. A receipt proves that he paid off the note on March 4, 1785.

Within four weeks of the auction, his shop was in production; on January 25, 1785, Carey's Pennsylvania Evening Herald, a semi-weekly, appeared and Carey's distinguished American career had begun. By January 1, 1817, when he made his son a partner, he had published more than six hundred and fifty editions of books, exclusive of the Bibles and Testaments which made him "the foremost printer and publisher of the Bible in America during the first quarter of the nineteenth century."[7] Not all of his imprints came from his own press, but many did. The process of producing them required constant renewal and repair of equipment.

For the purpose of this paper, it is neither possible nor sensible to print every bill Carey preserved. Many are repetitious; others are unclear. A sampling will be adequate to indicate sources of supply and costs. It should be noted that the period covered by this investigation ends at the time Carey admitted his son to partnership.

A few of Carey's printing presses were acquired from men who were not press manufacturers. About the time that John Watts closed his "Literary Publication Office" in Philadelphia and moved to New York where he became one of the first, if not the first, of American stereotypers, he sold some of his equipment to Carey. The bill, October 28, 1806, includes an English press at $41.50, an American press at $20.00, 9 pairs of cases for $7.87½ as well as an imposing stone and frame for $5.50. John Vallance, the engraver, sold Carey a press on July 10, 1813, for $100.00 and on the same bill he gave twenty per cent discount for a standing press at $30.00 and a cutting press at $13.00. These "special situations" provided bargains, but Carey also bought presses from the manufacturers. On May 25, 1792, he obtained one for $60.00 from John Hamilton who, four years later, advertised that "he had supplied many New Jersey and New York printers with presses of a very good quality that he could make for others on three weeks' notice at a cost of seventy-five dollars each."[8] In 1804, a few years after Henry Ouram, a former blacksmith, opened his "Printing Press manufactory" in Philadelphia, Carey paid him $115.00 for a

press.[9] Ouram, as will be seen later, also had other transactions with Carey, but the greatest single share of Carey's press equipment and repair orders went to Adam Ramage.

By the 1830's, Ramage had become, as Hamilton says in his fine study, "the Ford of the printing press industry."[10] However, his ability as a craftsman was recognized by Carey soon after Ramage commenced to work with presses. In 1801, among other jobs, he charged Carey 3s 3d for repairing a "Lying Press" and sold him a "Plough with Iorn [sic] & Knife" for 1/2/6. During the next few years, he sold him various supplies such as twelve feet of brass rule for 15s, one hundred quoins for .67, "Mallat planner & Shooting Stick" for 5s 6d. And, in 1805, he sold Carey a mahogany printing press "compleat" for $130.00 as well as a standing press for $61.00. As Carey's shop increased in size, Ramage was frequently called upon. By 1807, when it was a five-press shop, a Ramage statement read:

                                     

1807
March	10	To 2 pair of Points	.80
	18	To a Mallat & planner	.67
		To Work at Press	.37½
April	12	To a pair of points	.40
	14 & 16	To planing 2 plattings	.50
May	1	To 8 feet Brass rule &c.mmat; 15cts	1.20
	18	To oil cup & Die steeling point of screw	1.25
June	8	To 100 quoins	.67
	16	To 6 feet Rule &c.mmat; 15	.90
July	14	To a pair of ball stocks	.75
Septr.	15	To work at Timpans hooks & Eys [?] planing a platting &c	.80
		To a pair of Points	.40
October	5 & 9	To 2 pair ball stocks	1.50
	10 & 20	To planing 2 plattings cutting one at 3 times 84 yds. Reglet	5.75
Decr.	1	To planing a platting	.25
	13	To a new frisket	2.25
	18	To planing a platting	.25
		To 2 planners	.67

The points, being thin pieces of metal which were adjusted to the tympan to make register, could be easily mislaid and would be purchased from time to time. More interesting is the attention given to the platen. In a statement of the following year, one finds a different variety of jobs:    

May	5	To a pair of Points	.40
	8	To Staying 3 Presses	.75

                                   

		To a new Set of Cramps put on	2.50
	10	To Smith work at bolts &c	.40
	14	To 2 pair ball Stocks	1.50
		To Work at Press	.30
	18	To a pair of Steel points	.60
	28	To blocks for Press & mending Gally	.37½
June	17	To a pair ball Stocks	.75
August	8	To planing a platting & 4 blocks	.30
	12	To a Sleeve pin	.30
		To a new wood for rounce handle	.25
Sept	27	To 3 Bodkins	.33
October	13 & 19	To 23 yds. Reglet & Side Sticks 1 yd Gutter	1.50
	31	To Staying Press & work at Ditto	.80
Novr	2	To laying a Stone in plaster of Paris and plaster	.75
	8	To a Sleeve pin	.30
		To planing a platting	.25
at several times	12	Side 9 yds. Gutter Stick 12 Reglet	2.20
		To Press for paper Iron Screw & leaver	32.00

Hardly a month went by without some sort of work being needed. If Ramage was not called in to stay a press or supply a new rounce handle, there was the platen or a new set of cramps or something else that required his skill. This continued year in and year out, as seen in the work for the first six months of 1816:                                                

Feby.	14	To planing a platting	.25
	26	To planing & cutting one Ditto	.50
		To mending a frisket	.25
March	1	To 3 planners	1.00
	6	To a Set of Cramps	3.00
	7	To planing a platting	.25
	16	To a pair of points	.50
	23	To a pair of Ditto	.50
		To spurring of Ditto	.25
	29	To planing a platting	.25
April	6	To Laying Stone in plaster	1.50
	12	To bolting & planing a platting	.75
		To Laying Stone in plaster & a new Set of Cramps	4.25
		To a new brass bottom Galley	5.00
	25	To a pair of Large ball stocks	.87½
	27	To planing a platting	.25
	30	To 4 Ledge Galleys Mohogany [sic] &c.mmat; .37½	1.50
May	13	To planing a large platting	.50
		To a pair of Large ball stocks	.87½
	19	To new wood on Rounce	.50
June	3d	To a pair of Large ball stocks	.87½
	16	To 100 Quions [sic] & a pair of points	1.25
	17	To 2 pair of points	1.00
	24	To a pair of ball stocks	.75

       

	28	To a new slice a balance & a new frisket	3.87½
		To 2 pair of point screws & button	.75
		To mending rounce	.50
		To a pair of spring points	1.00

Ramage occasionally sold Carey items not mentioned in the above statements. Sample entries for some of them are listed:                

Feb.	24	1808	To 6 Bearers	.25
April	3	1809	To a Sheeps foot	.45
Sept.	12	1809	To a Ink block	.50
			To a Slice Galley	1.00
March	6	1811	To a footstep	.25
March	26	1811	To a Composing Stick	2.50
August	14	1813	To 2 pair of Chases lbs. 76 &c.mmat; 33	25.08
Dec.	18	1816	To a Ball rack	.37½

All of this business was conducted while Ramage was involved in the manufacture of presses. Besides those already noted, he sold to Carey:            

July	23	1811	To a Printing Press compleat	130.00
			To one Ditto Screw up platting &c	137.00
Dec.	9	1811	To a Standing Press compleat	75.00
June	5	1812	To a Printing Press compleat	130.00
Sept.	27	1813	To a Printing Press compleat screw up platting No 371	137.00
Aug.	27	1814	To a Bookbinders Cutting Press & plough	13.00

As Hamilton points out, the "screw up platting" may have "referred to a method of fastening the platen by four bolts at the upper corners, instead of by the cord lashings of the common press."[11]

Because Ramage's statements often covered work for about a year or more, they clearly show the recurring problems of maintenance. In bills of other artisans, one finds information about some specialized suppliers as well as about those who performed work similar to that of Ramage. Before Ramage started in business as a printers' joiner, Carey depended upon cabinetmakers and metal workers. During his first month in operation, January, 1785, he purchased three galleys for 1/2/6, a dozen side sticks for 6s, and seventeen yards of reglet for 17s from William Rigby, a cabinetmaker.[12] Trade with Rigby continued and the following excerpt from a Rigby statement resembles those later submitted by Ramage:

     

1790
Jan.	15	1 mallet & shuting stick	--	2	3
		8 side sticks 3d 1 planer 1s/-	--	3	--

                   

Feb.	1st	3 yards Riglet & Job	--	1	6
	6	plaining the pladden	--	1	0
April	9	4 yards Gutter Sticks 5d 4 do. Riglet 4d	--	3	0
		8 side sticks 3d	--	2	0
	16	To Job	--	1	3
May	6	Staying & Repairing the Press	--	7	6
	21	Mending Tympan	--	1	--
June	22	To work done to the pladden	--	3	--
	24	2 Shuting sticks & wooding Cut	--	2	6
		To new Tympan and Sundrys	--	7	6

Rigby worked for Carey until at least 1793. In the meantime, Daniel Dawson, a whitesmith, also supplied help and equipment.[13] In December, 1787, he mended a frisket for 1s 6d and made one for 10s. Four years later, his statement contained such items as:                

4th Mo.	12th	To Mending 1 Frisket	--	1	--
4th Mo.	17th	To 1 Large Rod for Press 2 f 8	--	2	6
	28	To Mending 1 Timken	--	1	3
5th Mo.	4th	To Press Handle Mended	--	2	6
	13th	To 1 Chace	1	10	--
	17	To 1 Timken Iron Mended	--	2	--
7th Mo.	10th	To 1 Chace	1	10	--
		To 3 Half Joints for a Frisket	--	4	6

Surprisingly enough, neither William Bryden whom the American Dictionary of Printing and Bookmaking refers to as "an early maker of presses in Philadelphia," nor John Goodman, mentioned as a press-maker by McCulloch, appear to have received much business from Carey.[14] Bryden's bills of 1792 and 1794 include charges for a mallet at 2s, setting up a printing press for 7 s 6d, putting on a set of cramps for 3s 9d; Goodman, in 1794, presented two bills for, among other things, a new frisket at 13s 6d, a set of brass cramps for 17s 6d, and a set of brass linings for the hose at 7s 6d. Press repairs were also made, during the early years by John Aitken, the printer, bookseller, and silversmith, by James Hendricks, a cutler who, in 1793, supplied a pair of points and mended a frisket for 5s 7½d, and by Milne & Price whose bill reads:[15]      

1789
3 mo	6	To Box & Screw for Printing Press	5	0	0
		To mending frisket & altering thumb Piece	--	1	6

   

	18	To mending frisket	--	1	0
5 mo	5	To Repairing Rounce of Press	--	1	6

While these mechanics kept the presses in running order, Carey increased the equipment of the shop. From John Sidleman, a stonecutter, he bought, in March, 1787, an imposing stone for 2/6/10 and a stone for a press for 1/6/10.[16] In the same month, Hall & Adgate sold him a pair of "Letter cases" for 17s 6d, a sink and water trough for 1/13/9, and "1 paper & 1 Letter Board" for 6s. Later in the year, John Cushing sold him, among other things, ten pairs of cases at 16s 8d a pair and three composing sticks for 3s 9d. The price of cases varied but slightly at that time; in 1790, John Fimeton, a house carpenter, supplied four pairs at 15s per pair.[17] Similarly, the price of reglet remained constant for a while — 4d per yard from Jacob Wayne, a cabinetmaker, in 1787 and 1788 and, as already noted, from William Rigby in 1790.[18] On the other hand, in the same bills, Wayne charged 9d per yard for gutter sticks and Rigby charged 5d, a difference which may have been based on the quality of the wood.

The inking apparatus, of course, required constant renewal. Between 1787 and 1794, pelts and wool came from Joseph Rogers, "parchment-maker, glue boiler."[19] One or two pelts were usually purchased every month at 2s per pelt until May, 1790, at 2s 6d thereafter until March, 1792, when the price became 3s. Six to twelve pounds of wool sufficed for a year, the price varying from 1s 3d to 2 s 6d per pound. Rogers also provided Carey with parchment skins for the tympans; these cost 3s 9d each in 1787, 4s 2d in 1790, 5s in 1791, but they were not replaced very often. Neither were ballstocks. When Carey needed them, he could always obtain them from a turner. In 1814, Edwin Barry charged $3.75 for three pairs of gumwood ballstocks.

In an archive such as this one comes across bills with a bit of mystery about them. What, for instance, were the six "Printer's Candlesticks" bought from James Truman, a coppersmith, in 1794 for 1s each?[20] Perhaps a spike at the base, enabling the printer to place it over the case, distinguished the printer's candlestick. Another bill

implies that Carey attempted casting:            

March 7th 1803
Mr Mathew Carey
To Henry Voight Dr.
	$	Ct
To Brass Moulds for Casting Spaces with coares at 9 Doll per piece	18	--
To dito dito [sic] for dito without coares at 6 Doll per piece	12	--

It may be noted that since Voight, at that time, worked at the Mint as Chief Coiner, he either used government property or did some moonlighting. He must have been a rather independent employee; in 1796, when called upon to answer charges for leaving the Mint without permission, he declared that "I did not go altogether on my own account in the country."[21] That Carey ever used these molds cannot be ascertained, yet it is difficult to believe that he would have paid for them and turned them over to Binny & Ronaldson for casting.

When the Bible projects started, more chases were needed most of which came from the whitesmith, David Scott.[22] The first recorded large shipment, billed on January 30, 1802, comprised 250 chases for 356/12/3 (4509 lbs. &c.mmat; 1s 7d). In a second large purchase, shipped between August 19 and October 21, 1803, Carey obtained 78 chases for 109/4/8. In addition to these, there were smaller orders, some delivered by Scott to printers working for Carey rather than to his own shop.

Though Ramage received many of Carey's press and press repair orders after the turn of the century, Henry Ouram managed to get some, too. It will be recalled that he sold Carey a press in 1804. In the same year and during four years thereafter, his sales included 50 quoins (2s 6d in 1804), a few composing sticks (18s 9d each in 1805), a few chases (2s 9d per lb. in 1807). His repair jobs included facing two platens (3s 9d in 1804), a pair of points (3s in 1805), and repairing a rounce handle (1s in 1805).

Ramage and Ouram could work with wood and metal, but stone was evidently beyond their capacities. Occasionally Ramage would lay a stone in plaster; Ouram's bills make no mention of stone. If such work was required, a stonecutter executed the job. Because the stonecutter needed no specialized skill to meet the requirements of the printer, Carey had no difficulty in acquiring press stones or composing

stones. Press stones, of course, required maintenance, as may be seen in the following:                                          

1805
March	22	John Miller[23]	To a Composing stone by agreement	7.00
			Porterage	.25
1806
Nov.	4	Richard North[24]	To facing a press stone	1.50
1807
Oct.	7	Moore & Herkness[25]	To rubbing 1 press stone	1.00
1809
Jan.	7	John Sanson[26]	for one Press Stone and Laying in plaster	5.75
1810
Oct.	9	John Sanson	Facing two Press Stones	2.00
			Laying one in Plaster	.75
1811
March	11	John Sanson	for one Press Stone Lade in Plaster	5.75
Dec.	3	John Sanson	for facing a Press-Stone and Laying	1.75
1812
April	23	John Sanson	for one Press Stone	5.00
			Laying in Plaster	.75
1816
Oct.	12	Alexander Napier[27]	for a marble Press Stone	6.50
Oct.	18	Isaac B. Garrigues[28]	To Sanding and fixing a Press Stone with Plaster Paris	2.50

Additional equipment came to the shop from the estates of deceased printers. For example, in 1806, Carey purchased fifty-two yards of furniture at three cents per yard and three pairs of cases for two dollars per pair from the estate of William Spotswood. One year later, Hannah Spotswood sold Carey two frames for five dollars as well as some more cases at a dollar and a half and two dollars per pair.

The purchase of printing type incurred far greater expenses

throughout the history of the firm. In one of his first transactions, on the day before the Bell auction, Moore & Rhea, importers, sold Carey 508½ lbs. for 63/11/3 — a sum greater than that paid for a press.[29] With the type in the Bell lot plus an additional supply costing nine pounds delivered by Jacob Bay in February of the following year, Carey possessed a stock adequate for the first few years. In 1787, he picked up more from two of his colleagues. Some, including one batch of "a small fount Brevier," quadrats, and "Sundry sorts" totaling 165 lbs. for 34/7/6 came from Joseph James, a Philadelphia printer. Another Philadelphian, Benjamin Franklin, sold Carey about 500 lbs. of the small pica Franklin brought from France and which had been returned to him by Francis Childs — a story which will be recorded by Professor Labaree in forthcoming volumes of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. But the expanded business necessitated a further increase. The following two bills from Richard Vaux, merchant, show sizeable amounts of type, probably imported by Vaux:[30]

I.

                 

336 Long Primer		1/6	25	--	4	--
8 Brevier flowers		2/6	1	--	--
	2 Boxes	2/.			4
			-------------------
			26	--	8
	Advance 120 pCent		31		13	--	7
			-----------------
			£58	--	1	--	7
Philada. 16th June 1787

II.

                                               

3 Boxes Printing Types C Contg.
445.8 Long Primer on Burgeois				2/			44	--	11	--
4.0 Two line Letters				1/			--		4	--
	3 Boxes						--		6	--
							-------------------
							45	--	1	--
1 Box Do. N. 8 Contg.
172.4 English N. 1
2 Nic	1/	8	--	12	--	3
	Box			2
	-------------------
							8	--	14		3
1 Box Do. N: 26 Contg.
116.8 Two lines
English	1/	5	--	16	--	6
	Box			1	--	6
							-------------------
							5	--	18
							-------------------
							59	--	13	--	3
	Advance 120 pCent.				71	--	11	--	11
							-------------------
							131	--	5	--	2
Philada. 28th March 1788

A more convenient source appeared when John Baine and his grandson, having removed from Edinburgh to Philadelphia in 1787, opened their foundry which continued for a short and at times successful period. This meant that Carey could obtain type frequently and without the delay of importation. The Baine statements disclose that deliveries were sometimes very frequent; in the month of November, 1789, the Baines submitted thirteen bills. Though the foundry did its best to accommodate Carey, the minimal orders caused an occasional comment. In 1790, the younger Baine delivered 51½ lbs. of English at 1s 9d per pound with a note on the statement: "It was impossible for me to cast a less quantity of the English than what I have done without charging an additional price." Two years later, he wrote that he had to charge 3s per pound for some two-line English sorts "on acct. of the small quantity which occasion'd so much more trouble." The Baine prices varied only slightly, as seen in these examples of costs:                    

				Per Pound
				s	d
Nov.	6	1789	Small pica	2	1
May	11	1792	Small pica	2	2
Aug.	10	1791	Long primer	2	10
June	23	1792	Pica	2	--
July	9	1792	Bourgeois	3	7
Aug.	26	1792	Brevier	4	6
Aug.	26	1792	English	1	10½
Dec.	5	1793	Long primer	3	--

Despite its advantages, the local foundry could not meet all of Carey's requirements. He continued to buy other type, domestic and imported. Of domestic type, sorts were acquired from Justus Fox as late as 1794, though it is apparent from the absence of bills that only a small amount of type came from him. Imported type arrived by way of other members of the Philadelphia book trade as well as by direct shipment. The box of imported type purchased from Zachariah Poulson, Jr., the Philadelphia printer, in 1792 was probably part of a joint venture. One year later, Carey began to receive type from the Glasgow foundry of Dr. Alexander Wilson & Sons, the financing being negotiated through Carey's London agent, George Barclay & Co. From Wilson, he received over seven hundred pounds of pica, over five hundred pounds of long primer, over two hundred pounds of brevier, and some two-line letters. The bill for small pica purchased bears a

note about the duty charged:

Aside from a few transactions with fellow-printers, Carey seems to have kept his stock fairly constant for a few years. Then, about the beginning of the nineteenth century, his trade with the recently established foundry of Binny & Ronaldson began to grow. From that time on, the firm of Binny & Ronaldson was Carey's chief source of supply. At one period, Carey's account reached surprisingly large proportions: according to a statement of type delivered between March 12, 1803, and March 3, 1804, Carey owed $6,806.20 on the total of $9,874.59. Ten thousand dollars worth of type in one year remains an impressive amount today. Not all of this type went to Carey's own shop; most of it was delivered directly to printers who worked for him. An excerpt from a bill containing such items is this:                    

1803		lb	oz		Deliver'd to	&c.mmat;
March	30	6	12	Pica Small Pica	Palmers	.42	2.83½
	"	7	1	ditto	Aitken	"	2.96½
April	1	21	--	Small Pica	Way	"	8.82
	"	3	13	P Small Pica	Aitken	"	1.60
	5	1	9	Superior P S P	Way	.88	1.37½
	7	19	13	Small Pica	do.	.42	8.32
	11	3	3	Superior -- P Sm Pica	Adams	.88	2.80½
	15	20	--	Small Pica	Way	.42	8.40
		10	1	P Sm P	Palmers	"	4.22½

For the bibliographer, the most useful information in this series of Binny & Ronaldson bills lies in the prices rather than in the amount of type purchased. Here one can observe variations from year to year in much greater detail than that provided by the published price lists.

Some of the most significant prices are:                                          

				Per lb.
Jan.	11,	1802	Pica	.38
Jan.	27,	1802	Pica small pica	.42
April	1,	1802	Nonpareil	1.34
August	30,	1802	Brevier	.70
			Great primer	.36
Oct.	7,	1802	Long primer	.50
April	22,	1803	Two-line pica small pica	.36
June	6,	1803	Bourgeois	.60
Sept.	30,	1803	English	.38
March	19,	1804	Great primer	.38
Sept.	3,	1804	Bourgeois	.63
Oct.	8,	1804	Pica small pica	.45
Dec.	1,	1804	Nonpareil	1.37
March	2,	1805	Brevier	.73
Dec.	5,	1805	Pica	.41
Oct.	15,	1807	Pica small pica	.48
Jan.	19,	1808	Long primer	.56
April	29,	1808	Minion	1.03
May	17,	1811	Great primer	.52
June	13,	1811	Nonpareil	1.75

In addition to printing type, Binny & Ronaldson sold Carey metal blocks (1s each in 1800 and .50 per lb. in 1811), presumably for cuts, and bookbinder's sorts (in 1815, $1.90 for a set in one size with 40 figures). Old type was sold back to Binny & Ronaldson — $11.00 per cwt. in 1807.

Despite the large bills from Binny & Ronaldson, Carey did not restrict himself to that firm. Sometimes he paid for the type of a particular job, as in these two bills from Thomas Kirk, the New York printer:

I.

     

1803
Jan.	5	To 853lb Types &c.mmat; 30 Cents pr. lb for Columbian Spelling Book	$255.90
		To 121000 ms Composition for Do &c.mmat; 46 Cents pr. 1000	55.81

II.

     

		August 1, 1807
		To Types for Child's Instructor	$200 --
		To Press work of one thousand Do at 50 Cents	18

Carey also acquired type from Robert Carr, the Philadelphia printer, at bargain prices, probably because the type had been used. Two examples may be cited: in 1802, Carr sold him pica small pica (800 lbs. &c.mmat; .30) when Binny & Ronaldson's price was much higher; six years later, Carr charged .37½ for long primer as compared with the Binny & Ronaldson price of .56 per pound. But these and others were small deals; for more extensive purchases, Carey remained faithful to Binny & Ronaldson although he did not have to do so. About 1804, Samuel Sower had established a foundry in Baltimore and, by 1808, enjoyed a prosperous trade. Yet, with the exception of one relating to old type which William McCulloch sold to Sower for Carey, no Sower-Carey bills have been preserved. This certainly implies that Carey was well satisfied with the Philadelphia founders.

Ink, being of relatively simple manufacture, seems to have been readily available from printers as well as inkmakers. According to a bill of October 22, 1785, John Albright, a printer, sold some ink (11½ lbs. &c.mmat; 2s 9d) to Carey. During Carey's first ten years in Philadelphia, other printers and Justus Fox, the typefounder and inkmaker of Germantown, supplied ink, too, but Francis Wrigley, a printer and inkmaker, received most of the orders. For example, between January 7 and June 14, 1791, he sold Carey 49 pounds at 2s 6d per pound. This price, a net price with an extra charge for the keg if supplied, prevailed until 1796 when charges of 3s, 3s 3d, and 3s 6d begin to appear. At this period, the ink was occasionally designated as summer ink or winter ink though there was no difference in price. In 1802, Thomas Condie provided two grades: printing ink at 3s per pound and best book ink at 3s 3d. Three years later, Francis Wrigley also billed ink at different prices (.40 and .50 per lb.), but he did not specify the difference. This did not last long, at least as far as Carey is concerned, for Wrigley's bills soon contained only one price, forty cents, which, in March, 1807, was increased by five cents. By this time, the volume of purchases had increased so that, between February 7 and December 24, 1806, Wrigley sold over seven hundred pounds to Carey. The successor firm, Wrigley & Johnson, maintained this high volume with Carey. In 1813, the price dropped back to forty cents per pound with random sales at forty-five and fifty cents. After the dissolution of Wrigley & Johnson, Carey gave most of his business to Charles Johnson from whom he purchased over a thousand pounds in 1815. Johnson, in 1817, still charged forty cents per pound but his best book ink commanded ten cents more. Carey's purchases from other firms were negligible.

The vendors thus far mentioned comprise a group one would expect to find supplying equipment for a nineteenth century American printer. But for woodworking Carey also employed men seldom, if ever, mentioned as making printing house items, namely, the inmates of the local prison. Perhaps because, having been in jail himself, Carey sympathized with them and wanted to help in some way. Perhaps it was simply because the prices were lower. For whatever reason, the Philadelphia Prison, between 1802 and 1816, made hundreds of boxes

for shipping books in addition to various printing house supplies. Some examples are taken from the bills:                                

Nov.	11, 1808	To making 15 Press Boards &c.mmat;	10 Cts.	1.50
Dec.	14, 1810	To making a Slanting Box for Printing office		.37½
Oct.	24, 1811	To 7 Small press boards		.14
Feb.	19, 1812	To 12 press boards 18 cts.		2.16
Oct.	1, 1813	To making 10 Press boards	&c.mmat; 18	1.80
		To making 5 Type Boxes	37½	1.87½
		To 10 feet Cherry for ditto	3	.30
Nov.	1, 1813	To Making Case for Type drawers		1.00
Nov.	2, 1813	To Making a Case for Type drawers		1.10
July	6, 1816	Making 2 Troughs	25c	.50
July	12, 1816	80 pieces Furniture	3c	2.40
July	20, 1816	74 pieces Furniture &c.mmat;	3c	2.22
July	22, 1816	50 " do	2c	1.00
Aug.	23, 1816	54 Furniture strips &c.mmat;	2c	1.08
Oct.	26, 1816	2 Mahogany Gally's		1.50
Dec.	31, 1816	350 Quoins	½c	1.75

The presence of other bills in the Carey Papers for wood delivered to the prison makes it evident that the prison charged for labor only.

One cannot resist the temptation to call attention to two minor but rather fascinating items in Carey's overhead expenses. The first concerns the cost of educating apprentices, as seen in these two bills:

I.
Philadelphia September 25th 1792 to John Risdel Dr

     

Mr Carey
To 3 Months tuition his apprentice Chrystopher Oneil
	£ 12/6

II.
Philadelphia October 5th 1792 To John Risdel Dr

   

Mr Carey
To 3 Months tuition his Apprentice Nicholas Fink	£ 12/6

The second relates to the professional organization in which Carey participated. It is interesting that the Company of Printers fined members who did not come to meetings:                      

		Mr Mathew Carey To the Company of Printers. Dr.
1791
July	4	To admission	£	-- .	7. 6
1793
July	4	To 2 fines for non-attendance		-- .	3. 9
1794
Jan.	6	To 1 do		.	1.10½
1795
July	4	To 4 annual payments		1.	10. --
				------------
				£2.	3. 1½

           

		Cr
1793
July	1	By cash pd treasurer, 2 fines		--	3. 9
				------------
					£1.19. 4½
		Received payment for the Comp. D. Humphreys

When Carey joined his Philadelphia colleagues in attending the Literary Fair in New York, they paid their share of the cost:

Finally, there is a long series of statements which the foreman of the shop submitted to Carey weekly, usually on Saturdays. These charge the week's work, the foreman's wages, and out-of-pocket disbursements. Once, when Carey was projecting new editions of his quarto and school Bibles, he asked his foreman to estimate production time. Luckily, the reply which has been preserved also reveals the size of the shop:

Printing-Office, March 14, 1807.

               

Memorandum.
4to Bible, 135 sheets 1000 copies, 8 tok each	1080 tok.
4 presses, 10 tok each per day	40	| 1080
		------
		27 days
School Bible, 20 sheets	10 | 400 tok
	------
one press	40 days

Most of the time of the presses was devoted to Bible work, with the remainder used for smaller jobs. Each of these reports of the foremen is not very important in itself, but the series affords an excellent picture of the week-by-week production entailing frequent purchases of skins, wool, oil, and, in the winter, candles. Therefore, bills of one year, 1807, are printed in the appendix although a selection from 1805 to 1815 might have been made.

Students of the history of printing, especially those without experience in a shop, are apt to think that the early nineteenth century printer, equipped with press, ink, type, and paper, could be quite self-sufficient for a while. This manifestly is not true. Even in a one-press shop, oil or wool or something else would have to be obtained or repairs would be required on the press more often than is usually realized. Carey's bills demonstrate these facts of maintenance and must

certainly increase our respect for those men who persisted in overcoming one deficiency after another.