Paper & paper making, ancient and modern

by Richard Herring

The 27th section of the Act, relating to the real and nominal weight of each ream or parcel, is that to which I have referred as being liable to deceptive or dishonest purposes. It runs thus—“And be it enacted—That if any ream, &c., be found to weigh under or over the weight marked, in the proportion of 5 per centum, if the weight marked on such ream exceed twenty pounds, or 10 per centum if such weight be twenty pounds or less, the same shall be forfeited.”

Of course there is no necessity for a proviso lest the maker should give a preference to an increase of weight upon that marked, but since some cylinder dried papers are apt afterwards to increase in weight, the addition is requisite to prevent unjust seizure. However, in all probability, at the suggestion of the paper maker, when aiding the Excise, in consequence of a great quantity to be charged, it has become customary to average the weight of a draft, instead of putting each ream separately into the scale. Thus the practicability of rendering this clause highly objectionable will be at once apparent, and deserves to be pointed out for the purpose of warning against the temptation.

The quantity of paper manufactured in this country at the commencement of the eighteenth century, when the duty was first imposed, appears to have been far from sufficient to meet the necessities of the time. Even in 1721, it is supposed that there were but about 300,000 reams of paper annually produced in Great Britain, which were equal merely to two-thirds of the consumption. But in 1784, the value of the paper manufactured in England alone is stated to have amounted to £800,000.; and that, by reason of the increase in price, as also of its use, in less than twenty years, it nearly doubled that amount.

I have extracted, from a Parliamentary report, various returns relating to the Excise duties levied upon paper, which, since an article of the kind is necessarily subjected to great alteration in value, according to the scarcity or abundance of raw materials, are, of course, better calculated to show a steady increase in the demand, than any mere references to statements of supposed value, from time to time.

In one return, specifying the rates of duty and amount of duty received upon each denomination of paper since 1770, it appears that the total amount of duty on paper manufactured in England for the year 1784, to which I have just alluded as being estimated in value at £800,000., was £46,867. 19s. 9¼d., the duty at that time being divided into seven distinct classes or rates of collection; while twenty years after, when the mode of assessing the duty was reduced to but three classes, it had risen to £315,802. 4s. 8d.; in 1830, fifteen years after, to £619,824. 7s. 11d.; in 1835, for the United Kingdom, to £833,822. 12s. 4d., or, in weight, to 70,655,287 lbs., which was, again, within so short a period as fifteen years, very nearly doubled. The quantity of paper charged with Excise duty in the United Kingdom, being, in 1850, no less than 141,032,474 lbs., and last year (1854) the enormous weight of 179,896,222 lbs.

Those observations, which are partly technical, because, without technicality, the view would be incomplete,—may give some idea of the skill required in the workman, and the expenditure demanded of the capitalist, to produce so simple a thing, as a sheet of paper. The most exact care, the most ingenious invention, the nicest work of hand, and the most complicated machinery, are essential to that superiority which the British manufacture of paper has at length established.

But the capabilities of paper are still more extensive. There are probably few branches of use, taste, or ornament, to which it may not be applicable. We have it already moulded into many forms of utility, and even of elegance, under the well-known name of papier mache—a material which may yet be formed into works of art, painted and enamelled tables, antique candelabra, models of busts, statuettes, classic temples, and everything which can be shaped in a mould.

An earlier and more important use of Paper is in the decoration of dwellings. Formerly, the apartments of persons of opulence were hung with tapestry, generally brought from the Continental loom. But its cost, its loss of colour by time; and the rise of commercial and industrial opulence, displaced this elaborate and heavy decoration, and substituted “paper hangings.” The first specimens of those exhibited nothing but the rudeness of an art in its infancy, and were almost wholly foreign; but the capability of the invention was large, and it had the advantage of converting the humble covering of walls into copies of the pencil, on a new and extended scale. The Continental specimens of this manufacture already display representations of leading national events, memorable battles, and even portraits of eminent men, forming, for even the humbler ranks, a kind of historic galleries.

The English manufacturer excels in the proportions of his paper, (English, 12 yards long, by 21 inches wide; French, 9 yards, by 18 inches). But, the art is still difficult and costly; the blocks for a single pattern sometimes amounting to thousands. One of the principal French manufacturers is, at present, producing a design, requiring upwards of three thousand blocks, at a cost of £2000., the design alone costing £1200.