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4) Paper as an Extra Charge: "Ream-and-Quire" Entries
Among the 631 paper entries, the largest single category, 471 entries, is that in which Strahan recorded paper as a separate, "extra" charge on a separate line following the standard printing entry for
| Wilson and Co. | ||
| 1752 | £ s d | |
| June | History of Betty Barnes, 2 vol. 25 Sheets No. 1000 &c.mmat; £1:1: | 26. 5. - |
| ...................... | ||
| For 50 R/ of Paper for Do. &c.mmat; 12s. | 30.-- | |
| [Ledger B 2r] | ||
| Mr. John Lockman | ||
| 1741 | £ s d | |
| March 26 | To printing Verses to a Lady of Quality, one Sheet 4to 500 Coarse, and 175 fine | 0.16.0 |
| For a ream of Coarse Paper for Do. | 0.15.0 | |
| For 2 Quires fine | 0. 4.0 | |
| For 6 Quires finest | 0.15.0 | |
| [Ledger A 18v] |
The distinction between this ream-and-quire method of entry and the "with paper" entry is a fine one, probably determined by (a) the customer's wish to have paper itemized and (b) Strahan's need to have a bookkeeping record. The method may also have been in part a "sales device" (still used by printers today) of demonstrating to the customer, by billing the item separately, that the cost of his paper was as great as the cost of setting, correcting, and printing the job.
In one entry, Strahan changed the billing after the contract had been recorded, from ream-and-quire to "with paper." From this significant entry, we can see not only the close relationship between the two methods of recording paper, but also a clear example of the bookkeeping method Strahan must have employed: "roughing in" a skeleton entry of the contract before he finished the job and could put in the details of actual work and consequent price. This method provided him with a running, up-to-date list of the jobs in work for a customer, and at the same time allowed the customer to make changes without forcing Strahan to cross out or rewrite an entry:
| George Whitefield | ||
| 1734/4 | £ s d | |
| and Paper of [sic] | ||
| Janry. | For printing / a New Edition of the 20 Serm[ons] & Prayers, No. 2000 | 91.13.0 |
| For Reams of Paper for Do. &c.mmat; 10s, 6d. p. Ream | [no charge] | |
| [Ledger A 5v] |
In a little over half of the ream-and-quire entries, 253 out of 471, Strahan recorded evidence of how much the customer paid per ream: the "unit price," which naturally was not the wholesale price but included Strahan's markup. In thirty-eight of these entries, the price is known because exactly one ream of paper was used: the price per ream of paper is the same as the total price for paper. But in the remaining 215 entries, Strahan actually recorded the price per ream. In 130 of the 253 entries, Strahan also recorded the kind of paper used — both size and quality. I shall use this information in the second half of this study to reconstruct the scale of prices Strahan charged.
The existence of 631 entries mentioning paper cannot be considered a "mistake" but is rather an indication that Strahan was using a system to record the use of paper: the four categories discussed above comprise that system. Further, these four categories divide naturally into two larger groups: 1) seventy-two entries indicate that Strahan had methods for recording certain special considerations when the customer provided the paper; 2) 559 entries indicate that Strahan had two methods for recording jobs when he supplied the paper. The latter two methods for occasions when the customer did not supply the paper provide the final evidence necessary to prove conclusively that the customer did supply the paper in standard practice.
If we consider the 559 entries as "exactly half" of the occasions when Strahan supplied paper (for purposes of clarity), then the total number would be 1,118 out of the 18,129 entries of Ledgers A, B, D and F. We have seen that Strahan mentioned paper in 7% of the entries; now we see that Strahan supplied paper in 6% of the entries while the customer supplied it 94% of the time.
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