Thus the Athenaeum dismissed the 1858 Brussels congress, whose ‘harmless resolutions’ in fact can be detected in the 1908 Berlin revision of the 1886 Berne Convention. Such arrogant superiority indicates a hostility to European ideas on copyright which is remarkable. Admittedly it was not until the 1878 Paris Congress that the idea of a uniform convention began to gather momentum. However, in 1858 Britain's scheme of international protection was not such as to justify smugness, and the markets that she had to protect were considerable. Nevertheless, Britain remained a reluctant participant in such debates, until international pressures on Imperial copyright forced the choice to join and influence, as the preferable alterative to being left outside. This decision was not taken until 1885 – when it finally became clear that unilateral or bilateral action would not be sufficient to safeguard British copyright interests overseas.

Foreign reprints: the growing menace

Even in the early nineteenth century the British book trade was beginning to face threats to its market from abroad.