Later Evidence of the Unit Price: Entries after
1749
Because of Strahan's simplification of the entries, there is less
information in the ledgers after 1745-49; but there is still enough to
corroborate the statement that Strahan's charges in later years followed the
unit charge for each sheet, and that the unit charge was always based on
type, the size of the sheet, and the number of copies run, as established
during Strahan's first years of business. It is notable that the unit price
increased very little over the years until some time during the Revolutionary
War. I cannot fix the gradations of this price increase beyond saying that
the unit price in 1785 showed a distinct increase for all categories over the
prices of 1776.
