Printing was, as is well known ,one of the necessary prerequisites for bourgeois development. 1 However, broad circles of readers are not always aware of the trials that both those who published and those who were published often went through at that time. Some idea of this can be given by the history of publishing books and their trade in England at the end of the XVI-beginning of the XVII century. Shortly after the introduction of printing in the country (U.K. Caxton, 1476) English rulers began to encourage the development of the book business on the basis of its centralization combined with the strictest control, recognizing the book as a powerful means of ideological influence on the population. On May 4, 1557, Queen Mary Tudor granted Charter 97 to the "glorious Fremen of the City of London" 2 to create a "livery" 3
1 See K. Marx and F. Engels Soch. Vol. 30, p. 262.
2 Freeman, i.e. a free citizen of the self-governing historical center of the City of London, had the privilege to craft or trade certain goods (including books) within the walls of London. You could become a freeman by inheritance, either by working as an apprentice for a certain period of time in the guild, or by paying an entrance fee and submitting an appropriate recommendation.
3 Liveries served not only as clothing, but also as a kind of uniform for the most well-off members of privileged guilds, each of which had certain clothing colors (the guild of printers and booksellers - red and brown-
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the Guild of Stationary Printers and Booksellers, 4 granted the exclusive right to print and distribute books throughout England. In addition to Cambridge and Oxford, where the universities were located, the publication of books was banned in other cities. The long-term monopoly position of the London guild in the book business is one of the phenomena that Karl Marx had in mind when he wrote about the impossibility of developing the craft of that time without special privileges for those engaged ...
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