366 Tradesman and Merchant — Commercial Population 



all this Side of the Island" was full.^ It afforded the Hull merchants 

 with a more expeditious advice of the arrival of their ships in the 

 Channel, and a direct correspondence was made possible between the 

 dealers, shopkeepers, and manufacturers of these western and nothern 

 towns; whereas all correspondence heretofore passed tardily through 

 London and paid double postage. 



The tradesmen found several particular uses for the mails besides 

 their regular correspondence. One was the carriage of certain light 

 goods by post, such as laces, diamonds, etc.^ Another was the dexice 

 introduced by the Bank of England in 1738 to facilitate the trans- 

 mission of large sums of money by post called "Bank Post Bills;"^ 

 the notes were payable at seven days' sight so that in case the mail 

 was robbed the parties might have time to stop payment of the bills. 

 Still another use was the transmission of mercantile papers and bills 

 receivable and payable.^ Special forms of assignation or indorsement 

 were invented to insure against robberies or loss of the mails. ^ Lastly, 

 a very important usage was the sending of patterns and samples by 

 mail.^ It is probable that the franking privilege as it was abused in 

 the eighteenth century was of itself a considerable inducement for a 

 merchant to enter public life.'^ 



Newspaper. A final method of mercantile communication must be 

 mentioned, viz., the newspaper. The first Weekly Newes appeared in 

 162L The first business advertisement in a newspaper dates from 1658. 

 The rise of the coffee-house into popular favor promoted the news- 

 paper by creating a desire for news; it was the custom, according to a 

 censor, for "the meanest of shopkeepers and handicrafts" to spend 

 "whole days in coffee-houses to hear news and talk politicks." The 

 first daily newspaper was printed in 1702. In spite of a stamp tax, 

 le\aed in 1712 and continued, with alterations, for a century and a half, 

 and ruining the lower class of newspapers, there were printed in Lon- 

 don in 1724, the following numbers of newspapers — dailies three, week- 

 lies five, thrice-a-week seven, thrice-a-week half penny posts three, — 

 eighteen in all. The first pro\'incial newspaper started in Norwich, 

 1706, and was followed by York and Leeds in 1720, Manchester 1730 



1 Defoe, Tour, III, 72-3. 

 - Cal. T. B. and P., 1731-4; 223, 234, 242. 

 3 Bisschop, Rise, 141-2; Gilbart, I, 41, 138. 



* 12 Chas. II, Cap 35 allowed them to be carried at the same rates as letters. 

 = Some of these methods are given facsimile in Gent. Mag., 1731 : 120. 

 6 J. H. C, 1745-50: 751-2; 26 Geo. II, Cap. 13, Sec. 7-8. 



'See sketch of abuses in Hemmeon, 159-67; and in Macaulay's and Lecky's 

 histories. 



