Was there an explosion of print in the 1640s?

Abstract

ABSTRACT We use new data about print output in early modern Britain to re-examine links between print output and political crisis during the seventeenth century. We show that print output fell significantly during the civil wars of the 1640s when output is measured in pages printed, but that this followed an extraordinary surge in the number of short quartos being produced. Similar spikes in production of short items occurred during subsequent periods of political crisis. We therefore conclude that total print output (when measured in pages, rather than items printed) was not a gauge of political tension in the second half of the seventeenth century, but that production of short items was. In addition, we show that growth in the output of British printers, when measured in terms of pages printed, slowed dramatically after the Restoration, never returning to its pre-war trend.