ABSTRACT
In the field of printing that was not financed or controlled by the government, production for commercial purposes provided textbooks and learning aids of all types to prepare for official examinations. Moreover, information was provided in fields of knowledge beyond those that were directly controlled by the state ‒ for instance, merchantry, navigation (maps), medicine, and agriculture ‒ but less for the craft trades, where skills were for the most part transmitted orally. Commercial publishers also supplied the entertainment sector, especially the theatre, with scenarios and fictional writings. Multicolour block printing was used for book illustration, calendars, and for room decoration such as New Year’s pictures. And from the mid-nineteenth century, information on contemporary political, economic, and cultural affairs and events was also printed in newspapers and journals, using lithographic and letterpress equipment imported from overseas.
