the case of more popular works of fiction, which have a sure market in
Canada.

The principal difficulty which British authors and Canadian publishers had
to contend with prior to 1891, was due to the proximity of the United
States. So long as the Canadian law remained in force which provided for
the collection of the 12-1/2% duty for the benefit of British authors, the
importation of cheap pirated editions of British works could not be
prevented, unless the work was reproduced in Canada, and such reproduction
was impossible chiefly owing to the limited market and unsettled copyright
conditions in this country.

The passage of the Chace Bill by Congress and the President's proclamation
changed the whole aspect of the Canadian Publishing Trade, but the making
of a Canadian edition of a British book still remained a more precarious
speculation for the Canadian publisher, than the making of a British one
was for the British publisher. When the British publisher made an
arrangement with an author either by out-and-out purchase, or by an agreed
royalty, and issued a copyrighted edition, he had the market to himself,
and no man might sell a copy of any edition therein. When the Canadian
publisher made an arrangement with an author or copyright owner to bring
out a Canadian edition--a speculation involving considerable pecuniary
risk--he had to pay for the right to do it as the English publisher had,
but his market was likely to be interfered with by an influx of copies of
a cheap edition from the Old Country, not sold to the public in the United
Kingdom, but prepared expressly for exportation to Canada and other
possessions and styled a "Colonial Edition." A Canadian publisher might
have purchased from an English author the right to reproduce a Canadian
edition; he might have gone to large expense in advertising and
popularizing his purchase, yet, before his books could be placed on the