The Almanac Dispute

Publication of the annual almanac was a lucrative business in Sweden. In 1747 the Academy of Sciences had been granted by royal decree a monopoly to publish the almanac; ever since, this had provided an extremely important income for the natural sciences in Sweden. (The academy was founded in 1739.) So that the Academy of Sciences wouldn’t have to handle the production and distribution itself, an agreement was made – usually for a ten-year period – with either a book printer or a publisher. Since 1824, the firm of P. A. Norstedts & Sons in Stockholm had for decades enjoyed such an agreement with the Academy of Sciences – although the last couple of times not entirely to the satisfaction of the academy. According to the last contract, signed in 1896, the publisher paid 89,000 kronor per year, with an annual increase of 500 kronor, for this agreement. The call for bids regarding a new contract began in the fall of 1903. Norstedts immediately indicated that the company thought it was already paying too much – the publisher proposed 50,000 kronor per year as a more appropriate amount, taking into consideration printing costs and sales figures. To secure its position, Norstedts also purchased the Central Printing Company, a potential competitor. But there were other competitors as well. Aftonbladet (the corporation that owned the newspaper) offered 105,000 kronor yearly, plus an increase of 1,000 kronor per year, saying that this seemed to be a reasonable price. Other bids came in as well. A hectic period ensued, with a series of letters and references arriving from the various players, who kept raising their offers. In March 1904, when the Academy of Sciences was to decide who would print and publish the almanacs for the next ten years, there were four offers. The highest came from the book printing firm of Almqvist & Wiksell in Uppsala. The bid was for 140,000 kronor per year, with an annual increase of 1,000 kronor. That was 10,000 kronor more per year than the bid which Norstedts had, in the end, been forced to make. The newspapers reported on the matter, and many felt that Norstedts’ initial attempt to lower the price had weakened the company’s position. Once the Academy of Sciences had involved itself in the principles of competition, truly objective reasons ought to be required if the decision was made not to accept the highest bid.