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The Scale for Paper
From the four categories of entries gathered from the printing ledgers, particularly from category four, it is possible to tell that Strahan's business had available to it a wide selection in size and quality of paper, that a systematic scale of prices was in effect at his shop, and that spoilage allowances were controlled and consistent.
Strahan described paper according to the size and the quality of the sheet when he made an entry necessitating detail; i.e. in 169 of the entries in categories one and four.
One size, Demy, was much more popular than any other; Medium was the next most popular, followed by Royal, which was used
As I showed in my earlier article, we have enough evidence to tell that octavo and large octavo were the folding sizes most often used by Strahan. Now we see in a separate group of entries that this correlates exactly with the most popular sheet sizes: Demy can fold to an octavo and Medium can fold to a large octavo, allowing a moderate margin.[6]
The quality distinctions among the various kinds of paper recorded in Strahan's ledgers are quite separate from the size distinctions. Strahan called the regular mill run of paper "common" or "coarse"
| Cheapest: | common or coarse |
| Intermediate: | thick |
| fine thick; fine; superfine | |
| finest | |
| Expensive: | writing |
| fine writing | |
| finest writing |
Strahan's price per ream to the customer varied with the size of the sheet and the quality of the sheet, but not with the number of reams purchased: large and small orders were charged at the same rates in the ledgers.
Following is a reconstruction of Strahan's scale of prices to the customer, taken from 130 instances in category four which showed details of size, quality and price. I have indicated multiple examples at each price in parentheses.
In the light of the fluctuating prices charged by paper merchants, it is not surprising that Strahan's prices to his customers varied widely for the same kind of paper; however, the prices did not increase markedly over the years. For example, common Demy ranged in price from thirteen shillings to one pound a ream, but I found the lowest price in 1780 and the highest in 1768. This apparent anomaly can be explained in two ways. It would seem that as the number of paper mills increased and their methods improved, they could give better value for the money charged, or charge less for a paper which had originally cost a great deal to produce. It would also seem that Strahan, as his company grew in size and importance, was able to arrange more favorable contracts with papermakers, thereby keeping his paper prices to the customers at a competitively low price. However, these speculations cannot be conclusively proven by reference to the evidence we can gain from the ledgers now available.[7]
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