Government Expenditure and the Growth of the Printing Industry in the Nineteenth Century

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T he discussions which have centred around the term laissez-faire, as applied to the nineteenth century, have largely concentrated on the legislative activities of the state; but there is another and often neglected aspect of government control during this period. For, although government expenditure was never greater than i6 per cent of national income between i83i and I9I3,2 this was sufficient to make it by far the largest customer in the economy. The purpose of the present article is to look at one branch of this expenditure; to do this in order to illustrate the wider importance of this aspect of government influence, and indirectly, to provide yet another example of laissez-faire, free-trade reforms in this period being the natural by-products of the process of economic growth. It is proposed to look at the organization of government printing, and the effect that this market had on the development of the printing industry.