Outsourcing State Censorship: The Stationers' Company and the privatisation of press regulation in Restoration England

This project investigates the full apparatus of pre-publication licensing in Restoration England.

The government's reliance on the Stationers' Company to conduct press regulation shows an early modern state outsourcing its security to a private guild. How did the Company recruit its spies and censors, and locate and shut down forbidden printing? To what extent did this represent a state appropriation of the traditional regulatory function of the Company?

The project uncovers for the first time how this policing functioned, the opportunities - and pitfalls - it presented, the impact of this alliance on the book trade and on the Company.