ABSTRACT
The power of the printed word to effect the moral improvement of the working class was a fundamental tenet of nineteenth-century philanthropists. The danger of a literate working class was a similarly recurrent theme of the social conservatives. Whatever their views, however, no one seriously doubted the importance of the skills of reading and writing. The movement towards near-universal literacy, a process which was beginning in 1800 and was all but complete by 1900, is a fundamental factor in understanding British publishing in the nineteenth century. Books and other printed products were used to teach reading and writing, and they were essential to sustain whatever tenuous hold on reading skills people might acquire. When larger numbers could read, there was a larger potential market for publishers to exploit. The growth of the publishing industry was a classic example of the cycle of supply and demand which dominated the free trade economics of the mid-nineteenth century. The legislative landmarks of this history are the successive Acts which gave public funds to support the education of the poor – tentatively in 1833, universally in 1870, compulsorily in 1880, without charge in 1891 – but this is merely the crude framework of the history of literacy. The inner history, in which the publishing industry and its products were critically involved, is the real story which needs to be told.
