JOURNALS, LEARNED SOCIETIES AND MONEY: PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, CA. 1750-1900

Abstract

This paper investigates the finances of the Royal Society and its Philosophical Transactions, showing that in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries journal publishing was a drain on funds rather than a source of income. Even without any expectation of profit, the costs of producing Transactions nevertheless had to be covered, and the way in which this was done reflected the changing financial situation of the Society. An examination of the Society's financial accounts and minute books reveals the tensions between the Society's desire to promote the widespread communication of natural knowledge, and the ever-increasing cost of doing so, particularly by the late nineteenth century.

Figure 1.

Production costs and sales income for Philosophical Transactions, 1752–1900 (adjusted for inflation, to 1900£). Production costs are shown in red, and sales income in blue. The trend lines are 10-year moving averages: red, production costs; grey, sales income.

Figure 2.

Trends in Royal Society income, 1765–1900 (adjusted for inflation, to 1900£). Blue, fees; red, investments and rents; green, publication sales.

Figure 3.

Trends in Royal Society expenditure, 1765–1900 (adjusted for inflation, to 1900£). Blue, establishments expenses; red, salaries, stipends and pensions; green, publication costs.

Figure 4.

Size of the Royal Society Fellowship, 1765–1900.