The last one hundred years of scholarship in the history of the English book trade have been dominated by catalogues: of books, of watermarks, of printer's ornaments and title-page borders. At the same time considerable effort has gone into the transcription and publication of primary documents such as those found in company archives and government repositories. Little research has been carried out, however, in support of the tools of quantitative analysis developed by historians and social scientists. The paucity of quantitative-based research is due primarily to the lack of hard data upon which to work. As a result, while we know for the most part what books were published and something about the official lives of the men and women who worked in the printing houses and bookshops, we know very little about the measurable physical, economic and material circumstances of the trade itself.

The Early English Booktrade Database (EEBD) will be the first networked electronic resource devoted to the organization and dissemination of physical and descriptive bibliographical statistics. The EEBD's goal is to collect and describe material evidence related to English printing and publishing 1475-1640 (also know as the STC period, after the Pollard and Redgrave Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland & Ireland 1475-1640). The assembled data will for the first time enable large-scale quantitative analyses of historical, industrial, sociological and literary aspects of the early modern print culture. At its heart is a set of digital files constructed in XML and accompanied by a suite of analytical and data-representation tools. It is also designed to be used in conjunction with the electronic English Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC) and British Book Trade Index (BBTI). Using the methods of quantitative history, often called cliometrics, scholars will be able to explore the nuances of the English book trade at a level never before possible. For example, a book historian will be able to chart in detail the disappearance of black letter printing during the reign of Elizabeth, while a divinity scholar might investigate the flourishing trade in printed sermons and its impact on popular religious beliefs.