Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/394

privilege for a term of years. Such monopolies are termed Patents; and they are granted, on the payment of certain fees, for different periods, from five to twenty years.

The following table, compiled from the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons "on Patents," 1829, shows the expense and duration of patents in various countries:

COUNTRIES.	EXPENSE.				TERM OF YEARS.			Number granted in Six Years, ending in 1826.— (Rep. p. 243.)
		£	s.	d.
England		120	0	0		14		914
Ireland		125	0	0		14		. . . .
Scotland		100	0	0		14		. . . .
America		6	15	0		14		. . . .
	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	12	0	0		5	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
France		32	0	0		10		1091
		60	0	0		15
Netherlands	£6 to £30				5, 10, 15			. . . .
Austria		42	10	0		15		1099
Spain[1]—Inventor		20	9	4		15		. . . .
Spain*—„ Improver		12	5	7		10		. . . .
Spain*—„ Importer		10	4	8		6		. . . .

(433.) It is clearly of importance to preserve to each inventor the sole use of his invention, until he

1. The expense of a patent in Spain is stated in the Report to be respectively 2000, 1200, and 1000 reals. If these are reals of Vellon, in which accounts are usually kept at Madrid, the above sums are correct; but if they are reals of Plate, the above sums ought to be nearly doubled.