Cheap Print and the Stamp Duty on Pamphlets

Abstract As part of a wide-ranging act imposing duties on many different commodities, in 1712 newspapers and pamphlets became subject to a stamp duty, which would eventually come to be known as one of the ‘taxes on knowledge’. However, it has been tacitly assumed that the stamp duty did not impact on street literature, even though broadsides, slips, and chapbooks all fell within the bibliographical parameters of the act. In fact, there is some limited evidence that booksellers at the cheap end of the trade were at times conscious of the legislation concerning pamphlets, and there are a few instances where stamp duty was paid, although these look like the exceptions to prove the rule that the stamp duty was largely ignored. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, some booksellers at the cheap end of the trade appear to have appealed to the stamp duty as part of an effort to assert ownership in particular titles. This article is an attempt to interpret that rather fragmentary evidence around this subject.