A Brief History of Printing in England / A Short History of Printing in England from Caxton to the Present Time

by Frederick W. Hamilton

1. How many presses each printer possessed.

2. What he printed.

3. How many impressions were taken of each piece of work.

4. How many workmen and apprentices there were in each plant.

5. Whether unauthorized persons were employed or allowed to remain about the plant.

The regulations of the edict and also the private regulations of the Company seem to have been enforced at this time with all the thoroughness in the power of the Company. The registers show that its officers frequently seized and destroyed editions of unlicensed books and in other ways enforced the edicts against all persons. Its own members were frequently disciplined. The registers show discipline for printing an unlicensed book, for selling a prayer book of Edward VI in place of one of Elizabeth, for infringing a copyright, for printing indecent or offensive matters, for selling books to other than book-shops, for selling books “disorderly printed,” for keeping open on Sundays and festival days, and for keeping unregistered apprentices. The phrase “disorderly printed” appears to refer to the careless and inaccurate printing of the books rather than to the nature of their contents. The printing standards of the time were not high, but this would appear to indicate a disposition to maintain them, such as they were. The punishment for selling to other than book shops is interesting as showing that at that early period the book trade suffered from one of the things which to-day causes much complaint among booksellers. Sales by department stores, drug stores, and other parties disposed to cut rates are regarded as serious difficulties in the book trade of to-day and it is evident that the same difficulty occurred three hundred and fifty years ago.

The difficulties of the printers were by no means limited to those created by the edicts or regulations. One of the great sources of difficulty lay in the privileges and monopolies which had been recklessly granted for a considerable period. These privileges had a most unfortunate effect upon the industry both on the side of business and on that of craftsmanship. On the side of business they gave to certain printers a monopoly of practically all of the work which was certain to produce good financial returns, leaving to the unprivileged printers the doubtful enterprise of producing current literature. On the side of craftsmanship they took away the spur of competition. The greater part of the literature of this period was produced by unprivileged printers, most of it with very little profit to them. On the other hand, the privileged printer, being secured in his monopoly of a certain kind of production, was not held to any artistic standards. Competition being impossible, he could print as cheaply and as badly as he chose and generally did so. In both directions the effect was paralyzing.

Naturally the unprivileged printers were constantly tempted to infringe upon the monopoly rights of the others, with the result that there was constant friction and appeals to authority were taken on both sides. The matter finally came to a head in a serious revolt of the unprivileged printers under the leadership of one John Wolfe. Wolfe was a member of the Fishmongers’ Company, but had undertaken to do printing and declared boldly that he proposed to lead a movement which would revolutionize the entire situation. The revolt was sufficiently serious to bring about a compromise by which a considerable number of privileges were given up entirely or turned over to the Company to be re-distributed by them among the printers. The extent to which these privileges were granted may be seen by the fact that John Day, of whom we shall hear more presently, alone gave up fifty-three privileges, although he kept several of the most important and profitable ones. Wolfe transferred his membership from the Fishmongers’ to the Stationers’ Company. As a member of the Stationers’ Company he obtained certain privileges for himself and it is interesting to note that not long afterward the registers of the Company show Wolfe appealing because somebody had infringed upon a privilege of his. Wolfe rose to become an officer of the Company and distinguished himself as a prosecutor of offending printers and a staunch upholder of law and order.

The natural result of the reduction of the number of offices under the edict of 1586 was that the trade was seriously overmanned and there were too many apprentices, as the reduction in the number of offices did not affect the number of either journeymen or apprentices. The Company dealt with the matter in a rather successful fashion by an order issued in 1587. This order limited the number of apprentices and attempted to make as much work as possible for the journeymen. It provided that no apprentice should be allowed to work in either the composing room or the press room if there were any competent journeymen in need of work. When we remember the small number of offices in London and the fact that there were only two in England outside of London, we can readily see that this order was not so difficult of enforcement as might appear. No form was to be kept standing to the injury of workmen. The meaning of this is clearer when we remember that all composition at this time was hand composition and that stereotyping and other methods of preserving forms were not known and consequently a reprint or re-issue was, excepting for absence of editorial work, a new job. If there was expectation that a new reprint might soon be required and the printer had the type to spare he might leave a form standing and so avoid the labor of recomposition. This regulation meant that as soon as the first impression was taken the type must be distributed so that in case of reprinting the compositor would have a new job. For like reasons the number of copies to be printed was limited in ordinary cases to 1250 or 1500, so that if the book proved to be popular work might be provided in setting up repeated editions. These regulations seem to have been reasonably successful so far as the journeymen were concerned, but, of course, they materially increased the price of books.

The period of apprenticeship was from seven to eleven years. It was intended that apprenticeship should end at 24, and the length of the apprenticeship depended upon the age at which it was begun. At the end of the apprenticeship the indenture required that the master should make the apprentice free of the Company “if he have well and truely served.” As the limit of membership of the Company was only about 25, for a long period only about one-half of the apprentices ever became masters; the rest of them remained permanently in the position of journeymen. As elsewhere in Europe, the apprentice might become heir to the business and the place in the Company by marrying either the daughter or the widow of a master printer. Apparently the business went to the widow rather than to the daughter if the widow survived. Widows even seem to have taken the business in preference to sons. Consequently the widow of a master printer was a very desirable match for an ambitious apprentice in spite of any difference in age, and several instances are recorded where a business changed hands twice by successive re-marriages of the widow.