Neuchâtel, where the STN had its printing shop and headquarters, was the main city in the Swiss principality of Neuchâtel, which had governed itself under the suzerainty of Prussia since 1707.  The city’s geographical position favored commercial connections in Northern Europe through the Rhine and in Southern Europe through the Rhône.  The STN also shipped many of its books into France through passes in the Jura Mountains, which formed the French-Swiss border immediately to its West.  One route led through the rugged “Trou de Bourgogne”, visible in the background of this engraving from 1780.