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II
The second, and more comprehensive, group of Stamp Office figures contains estimates of the average daily circulation of thirteen London papers for the month of January, 1811, together with the total number of stamps sold during the month. These occur in both rough draft and fair copies; in the former it is apparent that the average daily circulation figure in each case has been obtained by dividing the total number of stamps issued for each paper during the month by twenty-seven, the number of publication days in the month. A specimen will most clearly illustrate the method:
| Mg Post | 27/87000 ----- 3222 |
Day about | 3000 |
| Number of London Newspapers and Amount of Stamps for January 1811 | |
| The Number of London Newspapers now Published is | 60 |
| Country Newspapers in England . . . . . . . . . . . . | 112 |
| Country Newspapers Irish . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 40 |
| Country Newspapers Scotch . . . . . . . . . . . . | 27 |
| The Number of Stamps paid for at the Stamp Office for Newspapers in the Month of January 1811 was as follows | |
| By the London Printers | 1,268,750 |
| By Stationers part used by London Printers & part in the Country | 768,669 |
| Total 2,037,419 |
| Circulation of some of the London Newspapers (per Day) | |
| Morning Post | about 3000 |
| Morning Chronicle (more during Sitting of Parliamt than at any other time) | about 3500 |
| Courier | about 5800 |
| Times & Mail 3 Times in the week | about 5000[8] |
| Press & Globe (both daily) | 3000[8] |
| Morning Herald | about 1500 |
| Day | about ll00 |
| Statesman | about 1500 |
|
Traveller London Chronicle & Commercial Chronicle } together |
about 1500 |
The thirteen newspapers listed were almost certainly considered to be the leading journals published in London at the time. All were issued daily except the Mail, the London Chronicle, and the Commercial Chronicle, which appeared thrice weekly. The individual circulations of these three, therefore, would probably have been more extensive than is indicated by the figures given, which were computed on a daily basis. Such a computation was made necessary by purchases of stamps in single lots for use by several papers, no indication being given of how many were used by each. Thus, The Times, with six issues per week, and the Mail, with three, drew upon the same stocks of stamped paper, and only a combined daily average afforded a basis for comparing their circulation with that of other newspapers.
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