The Loan Book of the Stationers' Company with a List of Transactions, 1592-1692. [ Occasional papers of the Bibliographical Society Number 4 1989. ]

Bibliographical Society, London, first edition, 1989. Printed wrappers, folio,. 42 pp. From the introduction: "Young businessmen of any age are in need of ready cash either to set up in business to improve their positions. This was as true of young seventeenth-century Stationers as of any others, and, fortunately, there was a source of funding available to some of them. The main obstacle then to obtaining venture capital was the necessity of paying the going rate of about ten percent interest for it, but, if this obstacle could be overcome, establishing oneself would be a less precarious enterprise - this was a ‘custom of the day'. The impetus was provided by William Norton. On March 6, 1592, he had solemnly deposited his will in the Company chest, and it was not unsealed and read to the Court until December 14, 1593, following his death. What Norton had done was to set aside capital which was to be lent to young Stationers for a period of three years, completely free of interest. This was the important aspect of his bequest, and his example was followed by several other Stationers, so that, throughout most of the seventeenth century, several hundred pounds were available to young Stationers. What follows is an abstract and arrangement from the several documents which record these transactions. Very Good.