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Montreal Journalist The Economics of an Early Nineteenth-Cent-ury Toronto Newspaper Shop Julie StabileI In the first half of the nineteenth century, what were the economic circumstances of a successful Toronto newspaper shop? What were the typical expenses of such a shop and what kind of revenue could a proprietor expect from such an undertaking? These are difficult questions because, unfortunately, account books, ledgers, or a set of printers' papers for Toronto newspaper proprietors either have not survived or are incomplete. A portrait of the economic context must be pieced together from scattered records for Toronto offices and from information in the newspapers themselves, and then compared to documentation for shops in other towns. In order to conduct this analysis I created a hypothetical account book for a typical Toronto shop in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the discussion of this account book, I will first explore the expenses - equipment, supplies, and labour for a typical year, and then outline the revenue for a shop proprietor. From 1798 to 1845, thirty-two newspapers were launched in Toronto. Seventeen of these survived less than five years: ten endured less than one year, another four less than two years and another three less than five years. Of the 15 newspaper shops that functioned for five or more years, a number suffered financial difficulties. Although a newspaper enterprise was a serious business in Toronto, it was also a precarious undertaking, as explained by a contemporary Montreal journalist: Any individual is at liberty to commence a publication when and where he pleases; but it is one thing to issue a prospectus and another to establish a journal, particularly in a district where there are many existing....The risk is great and the chances are much against a new publication ... for a considerable outlay is certain, while a return of that outlay is equally uncertain." I Julie Stabile works at the Archives of Ontario. She studied early Upper Canadian newspapers for research on her doctoral dissertation, completed in zooz. 2 Montreal Herald as quoted in the Courierof Upper Canada13 Oct. 1832- 44 Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 4/ I. E;xpenses According to the garrulous William Lyon Mackenzie, a newspaper [was] truly a very costly undertaking. Type, presses, cases, ink, paper, and many other perishable materials, rents, fuels, postages, duties, freight, carriage, clerkhire, journeymen their wages, apprentices their clothing and maintenance, smiths' work, carpenters' work - these are some of the items always to be provided for - as also the editor, and the foreman or manager of the concern of the office, with a reporter occasionally.3 Most of the evidence suggests that approximately £750 was required to establish a newspaper shop in early Toronto. Historians have claimed that the £625 awarded Mackenzie in I826 in compensation for the vandalism to his office was enough to pay off his creditors andi re-establish his business. In order for this amount to be sufficient to cover all costs, some equipment must have survived the attack, because when Mackenzie was selling this shop in I833, he stated that all the furnishings had initially cost him £750.4 After having been dismissed as King's Printer, Charles Fothergill sought advice from Attorney General John Beverley Robinson on how to raise £500 or £600 to establish a press in Port Hope.' Fothergill possibly already had some capital and thus asked for an amount less than £750. In 1829 the conference for the Wesleyan Methodist Church authorized $700 to purchase all the apparatus for a printing shop and a sum of $20so to meet the annual expenses of conducting a newspaper;G the total expense again amounted to approximately £750.7 In order to persuade Peter Brown to establish a newspaper supporting the Free 3 ColonialAdvocate n Nov. 1830. 4 Frederick Armstrong and Ronald Stagg, "Mackenzie, William Lyon," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, IX, ed. George Brown, David Hayne and Francess G. Halpenny (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1976), 497, and Correspondent andAdvocate I(iJan. 1835. 5 Fothergill to Beverley Robinson, March I829, Volume 2: Letters 1829-1837, Charles Fothergill Papers, MS Collection 140, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. 6 Minutes of the Conference at Ancaster, 26 Aug. to 4 Sept. 1829, Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada, Fonds yI3 83.06IC, United Church of Canada/ Victoria University Archives, Toronto. 7 My calculations for currency equivalents are based on one Halifax dollar being equal to approximately S;s,as indicated in Douglas McCalla's Planting the Province: The Economic History of Upper Canada, 1784-1 70 (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1993). 45 The Economics of an Early Nineteenth-Century Toronto Newspaper Shop Kirk cause in I843, a group of Scotsmen put up a bond of $zSoo, or almost £700. Once Peter Brown's Bannerwas successfully launched, four investors provided his son, George Brown, with £2y0 of immediate capital to publish the reform newspaper, the Globe. Later Robert Baldwin furnished the younger Brown with another £y0 for additional type and printing stock." Because the Globe used the same premises and equipment as the Banner, the initial expenses were less than the stipulated £7T0. In I8I7 after the Upper Canada Gazette office had been destroyed in the war, the printer ordered new type at a cost of £251 7s 6d.9 If the Globe and Banner were printed on the same presses, the amount provided to George Brown -£250 - would have covered the costs for an entire new set of type. If proprietors lacked financial backers they raised the initial capital in several ways. Fothergill was willing to guarantee his loan with a mortgage on his farm.'o Not wanting to incur such a debt, John Carey of the Observer and Francis Collins of the CanadianFreerdna tried to get subscriptions for the required capital." To finance the Christian Guardian the directors of the Wesleyan Methodist conference sold shares of stock in the printing establishment.'2 After expending the initial capital to establish a printing shop, proprietors faced recurring costs. Frequently, additional presses or an improved press needed to be purchased for more efficient and better quality output. With constant use, type was quickly worn out, and according to Mackenzie, had to be renewed annually to maintain quality and readership;'7 in fact, the government allowed Robert Stanton, the King's Printer, £50 a year for new type.'4 Although the costs for new presses and type varied from office to office, the accounts of the Christian Guardiatn shop provide a typical 8 J.M.S. Careless, Brown ofthe Globe, vol.I, The Voice ofUpper Canada z8z-8-z8yi (Toronto: Macmillan, 1959),23-45- 9 Warrant for payment, York, 27 Feb. I8I7, Canadian Documents, Manuscript Collection I3I, Box 2,Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. I0 Fothergill to Beverley Robinson, Mar. I829, Charles Fothergill Papers. 1I Upper Canada Gazette 6 Apr. I820, containing the prospectus for the Observer; and ColonialAdvocate 14 Apr. I825, containing the prospectus for the Canadian Freeman. 12 Minutes of Conference at Ancaster, 26 Aug. to 4 Sept. 1829, Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada. 13 Colonial Advocate 3 June 183o. 14 House of Assembly, "Detailed Accounts of the Government of Upper Canada for the year I839," Appendix to the Journal of the House ofAssernbly of Upper Canada, rth Session of the I3th Parliament, 18~39-840, Vol. I. 46 Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 4I/3 FigureI.TeHnurbeGoreBon 80 rpreo n dtro TheGlobe. 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