23 - Distribution – the case of William Tayler

Summary

I am from Grantham where the great North Road passes through 8 miles, and from Melton 7 miles and from Leicester where the other North Road goes 22 miles. Melton and Grantham are our Markets, but the Peterborough waggon with other Assistance comes to Waltham which is within 3 miles of me tho’ Waltham is neither a Post Town nor a Market Town but there is a Carrier meets the Peterborough Waggon at Stamford every Wednesday and brings all the Parcels into our part of Leicestershire …

Thomas Wright, the compiler of the Seasons almanac, writing to the Clerk of the Stationers’ Company, June 1775

This passage illustrates the problems of communication that still had to be dealt with entering the final quarter of the eighteenth century. As Christine Ferdinand and Michael Harris have both discussed, networks were required – networks for the communication of information, for the passage of goods and for the payment of monies. Of course, some networks had been established for many years – those of the chapmen, the carriers, the letter-writers and the Post Office were all of great importance to the book trades – yet, during the eighteenth century a number of more specific enterprises emerged aimed at dealing with these concerns. This case study takes a preliminary look at one such business – that of William Tayler. Beginning with the imprint of Pendred’s Vade mecum of 1785, it attempts to identify Tayler; to look at possible antecedents; describe the scope of his activities; and, finally, to explain the succession of the enterprise, placing it in a historical context.