Conclusion: Towards a Transnational History of the Translation Rights Trade

Since the second half of the nineteenth century, the protections granted to literary property across Europe and between the two sides of the Atlantic have given authors and translators a powerful tool in the control over the use and commercialisation of their texts. As a result, from the turn of the century onwards, permission to bring out contemporary texts in translation had to be sought, and paid for, by publishing houses in most overseas countries.