ADVERTISING IN LONDON NEWSPAPERS, 1650‐1750.

The article focuses on the history of advertising in newspapers in London, England between 1650 and 1750. It may be approached from at least three directions. First, there is the history of advertising per se; in this respect subsequent general histories have made little advance on Henry Sampson's pioneering work published almost a century ago. Blanche B. Elliott in A History of English Advertising has covered fresh ground in her examination of the advertisement sheets in the late seventeenth century, but has barely touched upon the much larger subject of advertising in newspapers proper during the period under review. The historians have concentrated somewhat superficially on the evident humor, quaintness, and evocativeness of many of the advertisements and have almost entirely neglected any quantitative analysis. Secondly, advertising may be considered as part of the history of journalism, a legitimate approach when one appreciates that by 1750, 75% of space in some dailies was being devoted to advertisements. Thirdly, the advertisements may be studied as a source for literary, economic, and social history.