View source for Subscription (finance)

==Historical==
===Praenumeration===
An early form of subscription was [[praenumeration]], a common business practice in the 18th-century book trade in Germany. The publisher offered to sell a book that was planned but had not yet been printed, usually at a discount, so as to cover their costs in advance. The business practice was particularly common with magazines, helping to determine in advance how many subscribers there would be.<ref>{{cite book
 |chapter=Praenumeration
 |editor=Severin Corsten
 |title=Lexikon des gesamten Buchwesens
 |volume=VI
 |publisher=Verlag Anton Hiersemann
 |location=Stuttgart
 |year=1991
 |ISBN=3-7772-8527-7
 |page=S. 81}}</ref> Praenumeration is similar to the recent [[crowdfunding]] financing model.