In the first half of the sixteenth century, means of communication were very imperfect, and the delays and difficulties of transportation of goods from one part of the country to another (particularly on routes away from the rivers) were very considerable. With no trustworthy postal system, and with very restricted facilities for remitting money, the hindrances in the way of ordering books, of delivering them, and of collecting the amounts due for them, must have been very great. In the absence of journals, it could have been by no means an easy matter even to make known to possible buyers the fact that certain books had been published. The booksellers depended for information concerning new publications upon the semi-annual Fair which had been instituted at Frankfort, but at this period it was only the more considerable dealers who could afford to make regular visits to the Fair, while it was also the case that a considerable proportion of possible buyers were not within reach of book-dealers of this class. There were, therefore, in this initial stage of the book-trade, not a few inducements for the production in various places, for supplying the demand of the particular locality, of books of a popular character, and this practice of producing unauthorised reprints, while often causing grievances of one kind or another, was hardly regarded as a misdemeanour, if carried on with moderation and with some little regard for the wishes of the author. The practice had also certain specific advantages for the community, in ensuring prompter supplies of books of present interest, and in furthering the developing of local bookselling and of general education. The material service rendered to the cause of the Reformation by these earlier “book-pirates” has already been touched upon. Under the pressure of the widespread interest in the writings of the Reformation, publishing business was done in a number of out-of-the-way little towns which would to-day hardly support a printing-press. Lutheran tracts were printed, for instance, in such places as Grimma, Zwickau, and Eilenburg, principally for sale through the pedlars. These issues were very frequently published without imprint or date, and the tracing of the history of their publication has, therefore, been difficult. The patience of the German bibliographers is, however, inexhaustible, and the lists of the presses of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are probably now fairly complete.