Gutenberg’s moving type propelled Europe towards the scientific revolution

While Gutenberg’s press is widely believed to be one of the most important technologies in history, there is very little evidence on how printing influenced the price of books, labour markets and the production of knowledge – and no research has considered how the economics of printing influenced the use of the technology. The fundamental role of market power and competition

Printing changed the transmission of ideas by introducing both a new technology and new forms of competition. In our research, we study how competition in printing influenced the prices of books, the spread of revolutionary religious ideas during the Protestant Reformation, and the diffusion of radical ideas that changed how Europeans did business.

Source: blogs.lse.ac.uk