Lets say it is the 17th century and I want to buy some paper. Am I most likely buying loose leaf paper or paper in a blank book or a scroll? Also when I go to my paper guy is he making it in the back of his shop or buying it from centralized producers? If I am buying loose leaf paper are there precursors to three ring binders? Can you give me an idea about how expensive paper would be?
Thanks
In the 17th century, to obtain paper, you'd probably go to a stationer (hence "stationery") who was himself "stationary" (seriously, that's the etymology) near a university, selling supplies to students. You'd buy blank paper. Depending on the time, you might also go to a peddler.
If you wanted a blank book (such as Samuel Pepys' diary) you would, I suspect (though on this I'm shaky, someone please jump in if you know better) buy it from a bookbinder directly. In my research, I haven't come across a lot of three-ring binder type things until the 19th century with the beginnings of "office culture" as we know it today. You might glue in or razor out pages in a blank book, but if you needed to be able to remove and insert pages, you would probably just have a bundle of paper tied up with string.
All the paper (used by the printers, stationers and bookbinders) would be coming from paper mills, likely outside of towns, because paper manufacturing at that time (and now) needed a ready supply of clean, running water--both to provide energy to the mills and to help make the paper.
Historically, paper was fairly expensive, relative to what we think of now. It was one of the first mass-manufactured recycled products (made of rags: if you read a Dickens novel and he talks about the "rag-man," the rag-man is buying rags to be turned into cotton-based paper). Only white rags were useful for papermaking, so paper was somewhat limited in supply.
Hope this helps! I can try to answer further questions if you have them, too.