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  • 39 - The Stationers’ Company and the almanack trade

  • from III - SPECIALIST BOOKS AND MARKETS
  • Edited by Michael F. Suarez, SJ, University of Virginia, Michael L. Turner, Bodleian Library, Oxford
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
    Published online:
    28 September 2010
    Print publication:
    29 October 2009, pp 723-735

  • Summary

    By the 1650s, the Stationers' Company was attempting to stem the tide of piracy by buying counterfeit almanacks, and taking legal action against offending printers. Transgressors who belonged to the Company, many of whom printed for the English Stock, were summoned to appear before the Court. The Company continued to pounce on the sellers of unstamped almanacks, but, even by 1750, several formidable individuals had begun to infringe upon and challenge the principle of perpetual copyright. In 1834, when the Stationers pressed for a further increase in stamp duty, Parliament 'decided that the privilege was outmoded and had been ill-requited and abolished the tax altogether'. At the same time the Company was attacked for failing in its moral duty by pandering to the superstitious and sensation-loving lower orders rather than publishing educational and improving works.