British commercial and financial journalism before 1800

Abstract

Beginning in the late 1530s, Europe experienced an explosion of business newspapers, but time has muffled the report. Before the end of the sixteenth century, commercial and financial newspapers were being published in more than half a dozen cities. At the turn of the eighteenth century, there were four basic types of commercial and financial newspaper published at London during the business week: the bills of entry; the commodity price current; the marine list; and the exchange rate current. This chapter sketches the history of each of them. These newspapers served a growing clientele that was anxious for the latest news, the 'freshest advices', about every aspect of the business world. They found paying customers for the news they printed both at home and abroad. They flourished and developed. Their success highlights how very important they were to the economy of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Great Britain.