Abstract The relative backwardness of eighteenth-century German literature and the presumed ambivalence of German writers towards political power have traditionally been explained by the lack of a copyright law in Germany, which meant that German writers, in contrast to their British contemporaries, were often financially dependent on the state. This paper argues that the differences between British and German writers in economic terms have been overstated. British copyright law did not in fact serve the interests of writers to the extent that has traditionally been supposed. In Germany and Britain the situation of writers was determined more by the underlying economics of the publishing trade, especially the high cost of book production, which enabled publishers to pursue monopolistic practices and tilted the tables in favour of publishers and against writers. This argument has further implications for our understanding of the politics of German literature in the late eighteenth century.

中文翻译：

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18世纪德国和英国的著作权经济学

摘要传统上，由于德国缺乏版权法，可以解释18世纪德国文学的相对落后和德国作家对政治权力的矛盾态度，这意味着德国作家与英国当代画家相比，在经济上经常取决于状态。本文认为，英国和德国作家之间在经济方面的差异被夸大了。实际上，英国著作权法并没有达到传统上应为作家的利益。在德国和英国，作家的境况更多地取决于出版行业的基本经济学，尤其是书籍制作的高昂成本，这样一来，出版商就可以实行垄断做法，并倾斜表格，向出版商倾斜，反对作家。这一论点对我们对18世纪后期德国文学政治的理解具有进一步的影响。