There were rigid censorship acts from 1662 to 1695. The first required that no one could print a book without first registering it with the Company of Stationers of London and having it licensed by appropriate authority: common law books by the Lord Chancellor or the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, affairs of state and history books by the Secretaries of State, heraldry books by the Earl Marshall or Kings of Arms Garter, university books by the Chancellor or Vice Chancellor of either of the universities, and all others including divinity, physics, and philosophy by the Archbishop of Canterbury, or Bishop of London. Books could be imported only into London and not sold until approved by the Archbishop of Canterbury or Bishop of London after being opened and viewed by a scholar appointed by these bishops and a representative of the Company of Stationers. If heretical, seditious, scandalous, schismatic or otherwise dangerous or offensive, the importer could be punished. No one could print or import copies of any books without consent of the owner with right by letters patent. The penalty for not doing so was to forfeit 6s.9d. for each such book, of which the king would receive one half and the owner one half. Printers had to set their own name to the books they printed and also the name of the author or else forfeit such book. Only freemen of London who were members of the Company of Stationers could sell books. The Company of Stationers had the authority accompanied by a constable to search all houses and shops where they knew or had "probable reason" to suspect books were being printed. They could search houses of persons of other trades only by special warrant. They could examine books found to determine if they were licensed and, if not, to seize them. Justices could imprison offenders. The first offense by offending printers was to be punished by suspension from printing for three years, the second offense by permanent disallowance from printing, fine, imprisonment, and corporal punishment not extending to life or limb. This statute was enforced by frequent prosecutions, such as of publishers of pornographic books.
The only newspapers to appear between 1660 and 1679 were official government sheets. But in 1695 the requirement to license publications, including newspapers, was abolished, thereby giving some freedom to the press. Locke had argued for this freedom, stating "I know not why a man should not have liberty to print whatever he would speak and to be answerable for the one just as he is for the other…" In 1702 the first daily newspaper in the world came into existence in England. The Stationer's Company monopoly of printing also ended in 1695. Printing was not regulated and no longer criminal just because it was unauthorized. Printing could now be done in other places than London, York, Oxford, and Cambridge.
The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Many successful merchants and manufacturers bought landed estates and established a line of country squires or baronets or even peers. The fashion started in the nobility and the richest mercantile families that their wives should become ladies of leisure. For workers though, there was constant underemployment. In periods of economic crisis industrial workers lost their jobs. Much work was seasonal. Anyone who could work most of the time was fortunate. Laboring and out- servants, who comprised one fourth of the population, and cottagers and paupers, who comprised another fourth of the population, had to spend more than they earned. The poor rate collected from the parishes for the cottagers and paupers was 3d. per week. There was an agricultural depression that was deepest in the 1680s after the collapse of a boom. It was the only bad depression experienced in peace time. There was famine in 1698.
Any person receiving relief from any parish and his family members cohabiting with him was required to wear a badge with a "P" which identified his parish. This was to differentiate them from idle, sturdy, and disorderly beggars who were not entitled to relief.
There were more poor people and, despite the poor laws, many became rogues or vagabonds or starved to death. Many went from parish to parish to build cottages and consumed all the wood there and then went to another parish. So the parishes were allowed by statute to remove any person coming to settle in any tenement under the value of ten pounds who was likely to be chargeable to it. They were then removed to the last parish were they had resided for at least forty days. Excepted were people temporarily moving to another parish to work at harvest time. The overall effect was to decrease the mobility of people. But a later statute permitted greater movement of poor people by allowing those who were poor for want of work to go to another parish where labor was wanted. They had to bring a certificate of their present parish membership to the new parish, where they could settle if they rented a tenement worth ten pounds a year or served in a parish office. Later, settlement had to be given to inhabitants paying its parish's rates, and unmarried inhabitants hired for one year, and apprentices bound by indenture. But parishes were displeased with the requirement to give settlements to these people because they feared they would become poor and need parish assistance, thereby increasing the rates to be paid.
Parish poor houses were converted into spinning schools to obtain an income. Parishes of large towns were combined to set up large workhouses, where the poor could be set to unskilled manufacture, but the managers lacked the character and education to make them work.
Because prisoners often died before trial and the poor prisoners became instructed in the practice of thievery in prison, they were set to work on materials provided to them at public expense. No parish was rated at more than 6d. per week for such. The president and governors of corporations oversaw rogues, vagrants, sturdy beggars, and idle or disorderly persons working in corporations or workhouses.
Assessments were made for building and repairing gaols in order to maintain the health and safe custody of the prisoners. Also, gaol fever, a virulent form of typhus, was so prevalent in the large prisons for criminals and debtors that it frequently spread through the adjacent towns. During some assizes, it killed sheriffs, lawyers, and justices.
In 1692, London lands were taxed for the relief of orphans. Churchwardens could seize the goods and chattels of putative fathers and mothers deserting bastard children.
From 1691 to 1740, Societies for the Reformation of Manners prosecuted poor people for moral offenses.