ABSTRACT
Foreign news was the main feature of the early newspapers. Even during the first decades of the eighteenth century, foreign news dominated the papers. Home news was the poor relation, comprising little more than a short paragraph or two tucked away at the back of the paper. The emphasis on foreign news indicates that the early-eighteenth-century newspapers were aimed at an informed and educated readership – politicians, London merchants and others in the City who had an interest in the economic and political consequences of the shifting balance of power in Europe. There was little to attract the general reader interested in domestic happenings. The main aims of the resident foreign correspondents were to obtain and report the news, preferably before anyone else; to produce an informed commentary on the political and diplomatic background to the news; and to provide an intelligent prediction of the likely impact of the news on future events.
