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The first book to bear the name of François Guizot was the subject of an agreement signed on 15 March 1808 with the bookseller Claude François Maradan (1762-1823), who had a shop at 9 rue des Grands Augustins in Paris. This is the Universal dictionary of French synonyms, Maradan's intention is to «give this work all the perfection it is capable of» by adding «a fairly extensive introduction» and introducing new synonyms, «all of which should make up about 200 to 250 pages of additional material in the new edition». For this purely alimentary work, which must be and indeed will be completed by 1^er On 1 January 1809, Guizot, known as «the author», received 1,800 francs, half in cash as each of the three volumes - in fact reduced to two - was delivered, and half in monthly instalments of 100 francs from the first month after printing was completed. It's not an insignificant sum for a 20-year-old beginner. It is true that he had the backing and support of the novelist and essayist Pauline de Meulan, his future wife, who had been in editorial contact with Maradan for at least ten years. Nine editions of New universal dictionary succeeded one another until 1885. Maradan also published, in addition to the new 13-volume edition of Gibbon whose contract, including Pauline de Meulan, had been concluded in October 1808 for a remuneration of 5,400 francs^[1], Guizot's three works up to 1816, whose contracts have not survived.

The 1808 agreements included a purely flat-rate remuneration, taking no account of sales or even reprints that might result from success, with the profits accruing exclusively to the publisher. On this point, the agreement signed on 31 March 1812 with Frédéric Schoell (1766-1833), a German who had moved to 29 rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois in Paris in 1802, better defended the interests of the author, who was now established in the world of letters. For three volumes of Lives of the French poets of the century of Louis XIV, With a first print run of 1,500 copies, the author received 3,600 francs. As was often the case in the 19th century, the sale was to take the form of deliveries, in this case twelve of around one hundred pages each, to be delivered each month from October 1812. 150 francs were to be paid on delivery of each manuscript, and 150 six months later. The author would receive twenty copies free of charge and, above all, each new edition, in the same print run, would be paid 1,800 francs in three instalments. The relationship between publisher and author was thus more balanced. Guizot never received all the sums fixed, as only the first volume appeared in 1813, devoted to Corneille, Chapelain, Rotrou and Scarron, the last three being treated by Pauline de Meulan, and signed with her initials alone, unlike Corneille. Another innovation that would not go unheeded was Guizot's contract in July 1812 with Johann Friedrich von Cotta (1764-1832), heir to an old line of booksellers established in Stuttgart, to revise the New comprehensive dictionary for Germans and French abbé Mozin, asked to be paid in German works to the tune of a thousand francs, out of the six thousand provided for. Again, the agreement signed on 30 October 1820 with the bookseller Alexandre Lequien, located at 25 rue des Noyers, for a new edition in thirty volumes of Rollin's works, with notes by Guizot, who had just been dismissed from the Conseil d'État and joined the opposition, included, in addition to a payment of 4,000 francs in ten instalments, a copy of Voltaire's works in 70 volumes, then in the process of being published, and likewise for 20 volumes of Rousseau to come; or how to build up a library collection.

The many contracts signed by Guizot during this very productive period in the second half of the Restoration do not appear in the Guizot archives; for example, the three political essays and pamphlets published by Ladvocat, and a fourth by Béchet, the two enormous companies, published by Brière and Béchet respectively, the Collection of memoirs relating to the history of France, in 30 volumes, and Collection of memoirs relating to the English Revolution, in 25 volumes, both launched in 1823, or the first two volumes of the’History of the English Revolution, with Leroux and Chantepie. It is only through a contract signed on 14 August 1838 with Charles Gosselin (1792-1859), residing at 9 rue Saint-Germain-des-Prés, publisher of Lamartine, Vigny, Balzac and other celebrities, that we get an idea of the changes that had taken place in publishing practices. Not only are copies sent to the author explicitly mentioned, but also those sent to newspapers, reflecting the growing importance of the role of the press in the launch of a work. Added to this is the «13^e free»: when a bookseller orders twelve copies, a thirteenth is offered by the publisher as a commercial gesture. All of these off-price copies, on which the author receives no remuneration, are set at the considerable percentage of 200 per 1,000. In addition, the book will be printed in two formats, in-8° and in-12°, in print runs of 2,000 and 2,500 copies respectively, with two francs each paid for the former and fifty centimes for the latter on sale. To combat counterfeiting abroad, a growing scourge mainly in Belgium, a French-speaking country that has only appeared on the political map of Europe in the last eight years, the publisher is planning additional print runs labelled «special edition», which cannot be sold in France, and paid 40 and 20 centimes to the author depending on the format. The exploitation rights, it is specified, are granted for five years from the publication of the work, of which the author will receive fifty free copies. This contract, signed by Guizot in one of the rare intervals between his ministries during the July Monarchy, and relating to a History of France for the education of his children in four or six large volumes, never took effect with Gosselin.^[2]. But it does provide information on the development of contract law, with the introduction of clauses that are more precise and more protective of the interests of both parties, and that also take better account of economic issues.

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