[PAPER]

Considerations Relating to the Intended Duties on Paper, Humbly Submitted to the Honourable House of Commons [caption title]

London: 1714. Broadsheet. 2pp., including printed docket title on verso. Ornamental initial. Disbound. Small folio. Early folds and early stab holes in left margin. Trimmed close, with slight loss to the first line of caption title and docket title. Minor foxing.

The most enlarged of three editions of this title recorded by Hanson, who assigns all three a date of 1712. While Parliament did introduce certain paper taxes that year (to which this document appears to refer), this petition also refers to the "late" wars, which indicates it was actually published following the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Its discovery within a large bound collection of similar documents, nearly all of which may be dated conclusively to 1714 or 1715, and its reference to a "High Duty Impos'd Two Years Since upon Stock in Hand" strongly suggest a 1714 printing date. The petition protests new paper taxes, charging that the already-existing "Excessive Tax upon Paper, hath already much hindred the Printing of Learned and Useful Books in England" and that any additional duties would ruin the domestic paper industry and book trade. With good information on specific kinds of paper, measurements, and duties. The document is among the earliest examples of commercial lobbying literature, which first began proliferating during the major changes in British government in the mid-1710s. ESTC records four copies in the United Kingdom and three in North America.

Hanson 1702.

Item #21232

Price: $550.00