Of course the success of the printing press did not just rely on the technology itself. This new technology would never have taken off if it were not for the production of mass produced paper.
During the middle ages, more and more merchants were dealing in this commodity called ‘paper’ that was growing in importance for public and intellectual life. The Nuremberg councillor, Ulmann Stromer, was one of the first to realise the potential advantages of making his own paper and, with the help of skilled workers from Italy, transformed the ‘Gleismühle’ by the gates of his home town into a paper mill. ‘The dates noted in his diary, 24 June 1390 (start of work on the waterwheel) and 7 and 11 August 1390 (oaths sworn by his Nuremberg foremen), are the first assured records of papermaking on German soil.’
The advantages of this mill-based papermaking technique, which spread throughout Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries far outweighed the disadvantage of considerable outlays of time and capital for building and fitting out with new machinery and equipment. However, the change in the production process, thanks to the division of labour, boosted output and improved quality and it could certainly generate a profit. But there was a growing risk of an imbalance between costs and earnings. This was noted in the numerous reports of business failures among papermakers.
So it was around this time in the 1600’s that newspapers were established and they began to appear as regular and frequent publications. The first modern newspapers were products of western European countries like Germany (publishing Relation in 1605), France (Gazette in 1631), Belgium (Nieuwe Tijdingen in 1616) and England (the London Gazette, founded in 1665, is still published as a court journal). These periodicals consisted mainly of news items from Europe, and occasionally included information from America or Asia. They rarely covered domestic issues; instead English papers reported on French military blunders while French papers covered the latest British royal scandal.
The reason why the printing press was a success then, is noticeable. But there were factors in the Far East that we could also argue account for its rise.
Encyclopaedia Britannica traces the invention of printing to the dawn of the age of the great discoveries in 1300 china. It says this invention was ‘in part a response and in parts a stimulus to the movement that, by transforming the economic, social, and ideological relations of civilization would usher in the modern world’ (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1998: 71). So if it was in china that the printing press was due to unleash itself upon the world why did it not? The answer to that is that there is little direct evidence, but it is highly probable that Chinese printing technology diffused into Europe through trade links that went through India and on through the Arabic world.
In the early 1800's the development of continuous rolls of paper enhanced the original Gutenberg Press as did a steam-powered press and a way to use iron instead of wood for building presses. This added efficiency of printing made the prices of printed goods more reasonable hence the term "penny press". This phrase originated when newspaperman Benjamin Day dropped the price of his New York Sun to a penny a copy in 1833. It could be argued that the penny press was the first true mass medium as it for the first time allowed texts to be produced easily and cheaply that could be distributed to anyone.
Another factor which can account for the success of the printing press is that of the efficiency of printing. As we have seen the printing press became well established through its new movable metal type and inexpensive mass produced paper. This success allowed an exploration of formats beyond books. Religious broadsides were produced. Posters, advertisements, and newspapers then evolved from the broadside. With increasing readership and new formats, printing became a huge investment and required a large, trained labour force. As printing moved through this transitional period, the new shop structure solidified. This all allowed for huge expansion and access of literature and print.
All of this new access led to massive changes in authority. Universities expanded and libraries were numerous. New scholars had access to variety of and now printers wanted to reach any market. Therefore risky ideas were printed that drove the intellectual revolutions. By the seventeenth century scientists were using print to change European versions of the universe. Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo and Newton, all published their ideas via the printed word.
As we have seen there is no single factor that contributed to the success of the printing press. It was a development over hundreds of years with inputs from various individuals and collective ideas across the globe. The impact of printing is comparable to the development of language, and the invention of the alphabet, as far as its effects on the society. Printing also facilitated the dissemination and preservation of knowledge in standardized form which is most important in the advance of science, technology and scholarship. The printing press certainly initiated an "information revolution" on par with the Internet today.
Bibliography
Website: [http://communication.ucsd.edu/bjones/Books/booktext.html]
Website: [http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpapermaking.htm]
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1998: 71
Mattern. J, The Printing Press: An Information Revolution, 2003, The Rosen publishing group
Lewis.B, What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response, 2002, Oxford University press.
[http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpapermaking.htm]
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1998: 71