Places, Spaces and the Printing Press: Trade Interactions in Birmingham

Abstract

With particular reference to Birmingham's printing industry, this article considers how machines and materials, crafts and skills, alongside working practices and specialist knowledge were transferred between the local printing industry and the many and various trades active in the region during the long eighteenth century. It demonstrates how the effect of place and space and the unique combination of skills and materials available in the town assisted in the technical progress of the printing industry and gave rise to specialist forms of printing, some of which are still active in the region today.