Journal of Economic Studies in Literature
JESL, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2026, pp.25-50.
Print ISSN: 3107-3492; Online ISSN: 3107-3506
Journal homepage: https://www.jesljournal.com
DOI: https://doi.org/10.64058/jesl260102rarml
Market Mechanisms in the Formation of Modern Authors’ Rights in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Abstract: The development of capitalism in eighteenth-century Britain gave rise to an increasingly prosperous book market. The juridical subject of property rights, the professional producer operating in the marketplace, and the original genius of aesthetic discourse gradually converged to constitute the basic form of modern authorship. The establishment of modern authors’ rights simultaneously entailed a transformation in the relations of production within the literary field: authors increasingly shifted from serving a small number of aristocratic patrons to addressing a large body of anonymous purchasers, while literary production moved from a system of patronage to a marketized mode of production. Both the form and content of literature became deeply permeated by market logic. The development of emergent genres such as literary periodicals and the novel not only enabled literature to adapt formally to an expanding readership but also allowed it to participate more extensively in modern economic life and in the formation of economic discourse.
Keywords: Modern Authors’ Rights; Book Trade; Marketization of Literary Production; Eighteenth-Century British Literature
Author Biography: Yin Bo is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of International Studies, Zhejiang University. His research interests include British and American literature and interdisciplinary literary studies. E-mail: yinpaul@outlook.com. Tao Jiusheng (corresponding author), Ph.D., Professor, School of Foreign Languages, Hainan University; Chief Expert for the Major Project of the National Social Science Fund. His research interests include English Renaissance literature and interdisciplinary literary studies. E-mail: taojiush@163.com。
标题：十八世纪英国现代作者权生成的市场机制
摘要：18世纪英国资本主义经济发展催生出日益繁荣的图书市场，法律上的财产权主体、市场中的职业生产者与美学上的原创天才逐渐结合，共同构成了现代作者身份的基本形态。作者权确立的同时意味着文学领域生产关系的转变，作者服务的对象逐渐从少数贵族赞助人转向大量匿名的购买者，文学生产从赞助体制过渡到市场化生产阶段。文学的形式与内容深受市场逻辑的渗透，文学期刊和小说等新兴文类的发展，不仅标志着文学在形式上更能适应不断扩大的读者市场，也使文学更深入地介入现代经济生活及思想话语的生成。
关键词：作者权；图书贸易；文学生产市场化；18世纪英国文学
作者简介：殷博，浙江大学外国语学院博士研究生，研究方向：英美文学、文学跨学科研究。邮箱：yinpaul@outlook.com。陶久胜（通讯作者），博士，海南大学外国语学院教授，国家社科基金重大项目首席专家，研究方向：英国文艺复兴文学、文学跨学科研究。邮箱：taojiush@163.com。
Received: 03 May 2026 / Revised: 16 May 2026 / Accepted: 27 May 2026 / Published online: 15 Jun. 2026 / Print published: 25 Jun. 2026.
