Parisian Printers Boycott Government Printing Facilities

Technological developments in book production since the Revolution of 1789 created problems in the French printing industry that were aggravated by the overall economic crisis of 1830. Parisian printers felt threatened by the introduction of printing machines, and typesetters opposed stereotyping.

Having broken the printing machines at the Imprimerie royale during the July Revolution, in September 1830 certain printers and typesetters of Paris organized to boycott government printing projects. The workers involved in the boycott were supported by Parisian printers, such as Louis-Armand-Jean Fain and Francois-Jean Baudouin, while publishers like Wurtz and Ladvocat defended them, urging the government to further increase its financial support to help the industry overcome the crisis. Bookseller and publisher Pierre-François Ladvocat reminded the government of the action of the Parisian printing workers during the Trois Glorieuse, especially of their key role in the mobilization of Parisian artisans against the Ordinances of Charles X. 

According to Ladvocat, only three hundred out of two thousand typographers in Paris were employed full-time in September 1830, and if the crisis continued, bookbinders, papermakers, and other workers in the publishing industry would be similarly affected. 

By the end of September, le Tribunal correctionnel de Paris acquitted typographers accused of forming an illegal association. 

Martyn Lyons, Le triomphe du livre: Une histoire sociologique de la lecture dans la France du XIXe siècle (1987) p. 43.