Have you recently experienced a…how to put this delicately…paper shortage? You know…a difficulty in procuring a certain kind of paper that everyone uses quite regularly. I hope you’ve never completely run out of that particular type of paper, but perhaps you’ve had to use something other than your preferred brand these past few weeks. Even if all that’s left on the store shelves has the texture of 150-grit sandpaper and the absorbency of plastic wrap, we snap it up, because the prospect of being without any sort of TP in the house is simply too horrible to contemplate.
250 years ago, Annapolis printers Anne Catharine and William Green knew all about paper shortages, but the paper they needed was intended for a public rather than a very private use.
In their May 10, 1770 issue of the Maryland Gazette, the Greens apologized for printing the weekly news on sheets of paper that were smaller than the usual size. Because colonists were boycotting British imports taxed under the Townshend Duties, including “Paper of the Price on which this Gazette is usually published,” the printers had to rely on limited supplies of American paper. Unfortunately, the Greens couldn’t get as much as they needed in the correct size, “even for ready Money,” but they hoped the problem would be solved in a week or two when a ship returned from Philadelphia with a promised quantity of paper Made in the Not-Yet-USA.
The Gazette’s paper shortage extended through the month of May, twice as long as expected. This next image shows the size difference between the substitute sheets (page number 275) and the regular paper (299, the start of the first June issue). To make up for the lost column inches, the Greens printed a double-sided half-sheet supplement to accompany each May issue.
The colonial boycott affected many businesses, and not only those retailers who primarily imported and sold British goods.
A “Manufacturer of TOBACCO and SNUFF at Bladensburg” had to find alternative packaging for his products. Richard Thompson’s April 12th ad observed that in “Times of Oppression, when Patriotism is the Theme of every Lover of his Country, it is hoped that the Want of Bottles will be no Obstacle to the Sale of his Snuff, which he purposes to pack up in Country made Pots, when his present Stock of Bottles is exhausted.” The boycott disrupted the usual way of doing business, but resourceful Americans found ways to make do with what they could obtain.
The May 10th Gazette included two short pieces that backed up the previous issue’s unconfirmed report that the Townshend Duties had been repealed in early March, but with one important caveat: it now appeared that Parliament had kept the tea tax in effect.
Instead of clarifying the situation, this only complicated matters. Some Americans would contend that the nonimportation associations had served their purpose and could now be ended, while others would argue that the boycotts had to remain in full effect until Parliament admitted total defeat and repealed its tax on tea. Certainly the person who wrote from London didn’t expect that normal trade would resume any time soon.
Whatever the latest news in the coming weeks, the Greens would continue to print it…even if they had to apologize for an embarrassing paper shortage.
The May 10, 1770 Maryland Gazette starts here: https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc4800/sc4872/001281/html/m1281-1018.html
Glenn E. Campbell
HA Senior Historian
#history #annapolis #annapolishistory #news #annapolisnews #1770news #colonialnews #colonialhistory #marylandgazette
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