Dawning of the newspaper era

Newspapers were a nuisance. They were troublesome little rags that were forever stirring their readers into rebellion. They cared little for truth but preferred to foment agitation.

And so the rulers of Georgian and early Victorian Britain did their best to ensure that the working man should never get his dirty hands on an inky paper. They slapped taxes on every conceivable aspect of a newspaper: on the paper on which it was printed, on the advertisements it carried to subsidise its subversive publication and, just for good measure, on the newspaper itself. Of a cover price of 5d, 31/2d was taxes.

As well as making newspapers prohibitively expensive, these taxes prevented new publications from entering the market dominated by The Times, the Government's mouthpiece. The taxes were levied at a flat rate so that a well established newspaper with a large circulation - say The Times - paid as much as a newly-founded paper with a tiny circulation in the provinces - say, Darlington.

The taxes were usually increased during times of war. This both swelled the Government's war coffers and prevented families from buying a paper and discovering the fate of loved ones fighting on foreign fields. It is little coincidence that the very beginnings of the popular newspaper era can be traced to the time of the Crimean War of 1855 when the public was demanding information about what was being done in its name to its sons.

In the 1840s and 1850s there was a concerted campaign against these "taxes on knowledge" very similar in tone to that fought by newspapers, including The Northern Echo, over 130 years later against the threat of the imposition of Value Added Tax. Back then, it was also pointed out that the taxes were actually encouraging the spread of unfounded gossip because printers would publish scurrilous sheets, stir up trouble and move on before the Revenue came calling.

Indeed, it was the Revenue which closed the very first newspaper - or should that be pamphlet - to be published in Darlington. This newspaper - sorry, pamphlet - was called The Darlington Pamphlet, Or County of Durham Intelligencer. It first appeared on May 22, 1772 and cost just 2d. This was because its printer, J Sadler, thought that by calling his publication a pamphlet as opposed to a newspaper, he would be able to wriggle untaxed through a loophole.

Sadly, Sadler was unsuccessful. The Revenue rumbled the ruse. The last edition appeared on November 20 of the same year and was given away free.

Sorrowfully, Sadler wrote his farewell in a single sentence of 'epic proportions: "Having received orders from the commissioners of the stamp duties to stop publication of this paper under a supposition of its being liable to that duty I am under the necessity of submitting to their injunctions rather than run the risk of trying this undetermined point of law at my own expense when I consider 'tis waging war with the mint, yet notwithstanding this I have laid my case before some eminent counsel in London and hope to receive their opinion very soon, which if in my favour under that sanction, the pamphlet will be again revived and published as usual, but, on the contrary, if I should be obliged to print it on a sheet of stamped paper I hope my customers will not think the addition of an half penny a week too much as it will be one penny per week more to me and I take the opportunity of returning my most sincere thanks to all subscribers and to request the continuance of their favours which will be ever gratefully acknowledged by their obliged humble servant .J. Sadler, Darlington, November 1772."