Advanced Arithmetic for Canadian Schools, 1871 (Canadian Series of School Books)

Toronto: Copp, Clark & Co., 1871. Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. The interior of the book is clean and tight. The paper has tanned slightly, there is a small bookseller's stamp (Henderson & Co., Ottawa) on the fixed front end paper, and a small water stain in the margin of the last 65 pages. The paper has tanned slightly. The brown embossed covers show surprisingly little wear for a school book. They have a bit of wear to tips, bumps to the top and bottom of the spine, a short (1/2") split at the top of the spine, and small light spots (2 front cover, 1 rear). The title page states that this is "Authorized by the Council of Public Instruction of Ontario", a phriase which may need a short explanation. In the earliest days of public education in Ontario, the supply of text books was inadequate. Scholars used whateve was available, in whatever numbers were available, even when the texts contained material considered inappropriate for little British children. To remedy this situation, Egerton Ryerson and the public school authorities established a book depository scheme to stock and sell at a reasonable price class sets of suitable texts. Only "authorized" texts were stocked by the depository, and only these could be used by local school authorities. At first the texts had to be imported, but the authorization system created a local market, and local publishers stepped in to fill it. The same authors had produced an earlier text: 'Elementary Arithmetic' .