The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-07 00:00:00

CANDLES.-TO HEADS OF FAMILIES.

pOTTER, Manufacturer of the Finest Wax
. •
Candles, Moulds with Wax Wicks, Importer and
Dealer in Sperm Oil, 73, Crawford-street, MarylebOne.
CONDITIONS-Upon which every article is sold. If the
most perfect satisfactiou is not given, the money with every
expence of carriage immediately returned. Country orders
without a remittance must contain a reference in Town.
Letters to be paid; delivered free within five miles of
London.

P. S. Those families of respectability who require
may have the annual credit.
Finest Wax Candles ..

3s. 2d. per lb.
2 ditto.
8 per dozen.
6 6 'ditto.
7 perimperialgallon.

Do. Sperm•
Moulds with Wax Wicks...
Store Dips ,
Genuine Sperm Oil .

NEWSPAPER TAXES-ADVERTISING.

(From the Scotsman.) •
TO THE RIGHT HON. HENRY -COULHERN, CHANCELLOR OF

1115 'MAJESTY'S EXCHEQUER.

Stu,—ln my last article, my object was to show
what is the amount of the natural demand for news-
papers in this country. When this is known, it
affords a standard by which we can judge, what ef-
fect our duties have in reducing the number of news-
papers sold, and to what extent this number would
be increased by diminishing the duties. lam not
sensible of having indulged in any unfair or exagge-
rated statement ; and I think I proved that the na-
tural demand exceeds six or eight fold the number
which our heavy duties permit us to sell--4 fact
which clearly demonstrates, that every penny we
take from the price will produce a corresponding in-
crease of circulation).
I have next to speak of the effects of the duly on
Advertisements. My inquiries on this subject have
led to results which have literally overwhelmed me
with astonishment, and which, I venture to think,
will excite no small surprise among the mercantile
kciasses of this country at large.
r It is almost vertluous to speak'Qf the value of
newspapers as moetiris-Aif vinmertial informltion.
They are, ill'the mcM.*!tiet-Rd proper sense, tent-
'merits of trade. Every man, from the highesro the
owest, has occasion either to buy ix, sell, at-1Z will
'see something in the advertisemenls,' the notices of
markets, or the general information about all sorts of
things, which it is his interest to attend to. Setting
apart every thing connected with news or literature,
it may be truly said, that to all classes a newspaper
is useful, and to many it is indispensable.
It is not enough in any country that human in-
dustry produces or imports every commodity which
the moral and physical wants of man call for. An
apparatus is required to make it universally known
where, and on what terms, such commodities are to
be found, to bring those who have and those who
want, the buyers and the sellers, together—and this
apparatus is the advertising press. What a large
shev.--window is to a single retail shop, the adver-
tising press is to a whole city or a whole country; it
exhibits the contents of its stores and warehouses at
the fireside of every private citizen. It supplies him
with a thousand facts which he could not retain in
his memory ; it informs him of new inventions, new
arrangements, new articles, of a thousand accommo,
dations, in short, to increase his happiness or aid him
in his business, of which he might otherwise never
hear at all, or hear when it was too late, and at the
expellee of much trouble.
In a question of this kind argument is of little
avail, unless supported by facts ; and I shall again
refer to the United States for an example of the
commercial services which an untaxed press is fitted
to perform.
The sum yielded annually by the advertisement
duty, on an average of the seven years ending Jan.
1827, was—
In England £129,863
Scotland 17,055
Ireland . 15,549

Total.

The duty is 3s. Gd. on each insertien in Britain,
and 25. Gd. in Ireland; and hence we find by a very
simple calculation, that the advertisements published
in one year by the journals in each country were--
Advertisements in
one year.
In England . . 742,074
Scotland
Ireland 124,392

Total 963,9'23

In order to get an idea of the number 6,f advertise-
ments published in the United States, I caused a
friend to write in February last to a gentleman in
New York, who had been long connected with the
press, explaining to hint the nature of the information
wanted, and requesting him to send over what he
considered fair specimens of the daily press in that
city. A letter was received almost in course, men-
tioningthat the number of daily papers was 12. Copies
of 8 came along with the letter, which stated that
these eight might be taken as fair specimens of the
manner in which the whole are generally filled ; and
this, front information received otherwise, I believe
to Ile the case. The papers are all dated the same
day, the 26th of March, 1828, and I shall send them
to the Exchequer office, that you, Sir, may satisfy
yourself as to the truth of my statement. I subjoin
the name of each, with the number of advertisements
it contained.
New York Daily rapers, 26th March, 1828.
Advertisements.
Commercial Advertiser 196
American
Evening Post.
Enquirer 316
Mercantile Advertiser 391
Morning Courier 397
Daily Advertiser 567
Gazette and General Advertiser 633

Total in the eight papers .......... 3 1 1 7

Average fur each
Now, from my correspondent's statement, and
other circumstances, I have reason to believe that
this average for the eight copies sent me will apply
to the whole 12 daily papers in this city, and will
correctly enough represent thc•mean number of ad-
vertisements they publish daily during the year.
We can hence easily approximate to the number of

advertisements which these Tapers publish in a day,
a week, a month, or a year.
Advertisements published by 12 Daily Papers in New York.
, * Irrone'day . 4,668
au In one week • • 28,008 .
-in'ln one month (26 days).., 121,368
In one year (312 days)...,, . 1,456,416
Sir, I confess when I first
.arrived•et this result, 1
was overwhelmed with astonishment, and you, I
dare say, will be disposed to question the accuracy
of the facts on which I proceed., If you 610, the
means of rernoviug your doubts are obvious. There
are certainly many American papers filed in Landon,
and I think one of the Stamp-office clerks cannot be
better employed for a month, than in summing the
advertisements at different periods, and thus bring-
ing my calculations W the test. lathe mean time, as
I have set forth the grounds of my statement, and
honestly believe is to be correct, I am guilty of no
deception, and shall now show the extraordinary
conclusions, to which it leads :-
Ist, There are more advertisements in the 12
daily papers of New York in one month, than jtt all
the 38 papers of Scotland in one_year ! !
2d, There are in one year a half more latiertir.e:
ments in the 12 New York daily papers alone, than
in all the 334 papers of Britain and Ireland, includ-
ing the 16 daily Journals of London ! ! !
But it is worth while to present this extraordi-
nary fitct in more lights thati.one. And, in the first
place, it may be proper to ietnind you,, that besides
the 12 daily papers in New York, there are a con-
siderable number, I believe 20 at least, which ap-
pear once, twice, or thrice a week. These will raise
the whole number of advertisements published an-
nually to at least 1,600,000.
' • The population,of London is to that of New York.
as 7 to 1; and its trade of all kinds probably as 4 to 1.
No.v, if we suppose that the London papers pay
one-third of all the duty paid, we shalt have the
number of advertisements which they publish,
322,000, or one-fifth of the number published by the
New ,York papers. But if we take the quantity of
trade * as a basis, London, instead of having one-
fifth of the number, should haVe",four tinies us many
advertisements as New York ; 'tind hence it folloWs
that an equal amount of trade produces twenty times
'as much advertising in New York as in London ! !
Liverpool has much more foreign, and not pedlar
much less domestic trade than New York; but you,
Sir, will see-at once that a comparison between the
eight publications issuing weekly from the press of
the one, and the hundred from that of the other,
would be almost ludicrous. However, that I might
speak with confidence, I wrote to a gentleman in
Liverpool, who has the best means of knowing the
state of .the press ; and from him I learn that the
average number of advertisements which appear
weeklysin the whohreightsnawspapers there, may be
estimated at 760. Now you will recollect that the
daily average for each New York paper is 389, and
that the twelve daily papers alone publish in a week
28,000, which will be raised to 30,800, if we add
one-tenth for the weekly and semi-weekly papers.
Observe then the marvellous contrast between two
cities pretty nearly on a par as to business and po-
pulation, and every circumstance which should create
advertising. One daily paper at New York has as
eau advertisements in two consecutive numbers,
as all the Liserßool papers have in a week, and the
whole adtertisethents *published in the American
town in a .weeli- or a year, are to those published
in the English town, in the same period, as forty to
one!!
I learn from the friend alriady referred to, that
Manchester, with its enormous mass of business, has
only six papers, all weekly, and that the advertise-
ments in the whole in one week may be estimated
at 430. The New York Daily Advertiser, or the
Grz;?tte, has more in one day ! lam sure I run no
risk in asserting, that the little American town of
Rochester, with 6,000 inhabitants, founded only
fourteen years ago, and which has notas much busi-
ness in a year as Manchester has in two days, has a
greater number of advertisements in its daily paper
in one week than all the six: papers published in
that queen of the manufacturing cities of Europe!
I have made the following hypothetical estimate
of the entire amount of advertising in the United
States; and from all I know both of the city and
country papers here, I think it is not exaggerated.t
Advertisements in
'l2 daily New York papers, with 398 ad- a year.
vertisements each
SS do. do. in other towns, witWone-half
the number 2,305,000
750 weekly, semi-weekly, &c., with one-