1619 – 1776to secure the rights of authors and publishers
by offering legal protection against ‘pirating’
of texts. A similar act was passed in France in
1793 and in the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar
in 1839 (the fi rst to employ the 30-year term of
protection after an author’s death). Th e principle
of international reciprocity of rights was estab-
lished in the Berne Convention of 1886.
1712 In Britain, fi rst ‘Taxes on Knowledge’ intro-
duced – duties on newspapers and advertising
and excise duty on paper.
1720s Benjamin Franklin begins successful
publishing career with Pennsylvania Gazette.
1725 Stamp Act in Britain applies 1712 regulations
to all newspapers, whatever their size or format.
1739 Scotsman William Ged devises method of
preserving pages of type for future reprints,
using a mould made from plaster of Paris from
which metal plates were made. In fear of their
livelihoods, Scottish printers wrecked the inven-
tion; 60 years later it was revived by Firmin
Didot who reversed the process by creating the
metal plate from sunken surfaces. Eventually
stereotyping, as the process came to be known,
was made a commercial proposition by amateur
inventor Lord Stanhope, in 1805, at the Claren-
don Press, Oxford.• (^) In 1829 the plaster and metal plates gave way
to papier mâché, reducing time, weight and bulk
- innovations happening at virtually the same
time in Italy, France and England. Stanhope
also improved the printing press by replacing
the wooden press with an iron structure and by
increasing the bed of the machine in order to
produce one-pull larger-scale sheets.
1741 First magazines, in US, Andrew Bradford’s
American Magazine, followed by Benjamin
Franklin’s General Magazine.
1757 UK: increases in taxes on newspapers;
increased again in 1776, 1780, 1789 (the year of
the French Revolution), 1797 and 1815.
1764 London: prosecution of firebrand editor/
journalist John Wilkes for seditious libel
published in the North Briton.
1770s Th omas Paine in America. His Common
Sense (1776), arguing powerfully for the separa-
tion of the States from English rule, will prove an
immensely infl uential bestseller.
1771 Press permitted to report the proceedings of
the House of Commons, followed by those of the
House of Lords (in 1775).
• (^) Th e Morning Post published in London.
1776 Publication of Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into
the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
• (^) Publication of Tom Paine’s Common Sense:
Addressed to the Inhabitants of America, a
of the Bible (called the King James Version), the
composite work of 46 translators and revisers.
1619 State of Weimar becomes the fi rst to intro-
duce compulsory education for all between the
ages of 6 and 13. In the UK similar legislation had
to wait until 1870.
1621 First Corantos published in London,
followed in same year by first Proclamation
against Corantos.
1637 Star Chamber Decree regulating printing,
followed in 1643 with Ordinance for regulating
printing, and in 1649 the fi rst Printing Act.
1642 The Mayflower arrives in America from
Plymouth, England, with a printing press on
board.
1644 Publication of John Milton’s Areopagitica
presenting the case for the freedom of the press.
1649 UK: Charles I beheaded. During the period
in power of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell,
and until the restoration of the monarchy in
1660, under Charles II, England becomes a
hotbed of radical, chiefl y religious, publications.
John Lilburne issues England’s New Chaines
Discovered.
1650 At Leipzig, the first daily newspaper, the
Einkommenden Zeitungen, is published by
Timotheus Ritzsch. In the UK the Perfect Diur-
nall was published daily, except Sunday, between
February and March 1660, though British read-
ers had to wait till 1702 for the fi rst successful
daily, the Daily Courant.
1651 Publication of Th omas Hobbes’ Leviathan.
1657 First classifi ed advertisement in a UK paper
printed in Th omas Newcombe’s Publick Adver-
tiser, the fi rst English paper devoted entirely to
advertising.
1660–1 Parliament prohibits publication of its
proceedings.
1680 Royal Proclamation suppressing all news-
books except those under licence from the
authorities.
1693 In UK, the City Mercury is the fi rst giveaway
newspaper.
• (^) London bookseller John Dunton issues the fi rst
women’s magazine, the Ladies’ Mercury.
1695 Parliament does not renew the Licensing
Act.
1701 First provincial newspaper in the UK, the
Norwich Post, a weekly, with an approximate
circulation of 400–500 copies.
1702 First daily newspaper in Britain, the Daily
Courant, is published in London.
1704 John Campbell publishes Boston Newsletter,
the fi rst newspaper in the US not to be a one-
issue failure.
1709 English Copyright Act, the fi rst enactment