Paper In History

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PAPER IN HISTORY

Without paper, civilization as we know it would simply not exist. Some of the most important economic, social and cultural developments of the past five centuries have been stimulated or helped along by developments in paper. Paper is taken for granted today to such an extent that it is almost impossible to imagine a world without it.

The World Before Paper

Of all the many uses to which paper can be put, perhaps the first and most important is communication. Before paper was invented, how did people communication with each other? The answer is "with great difficulty". Among the material used in ancient times were:

Clay Tablets : Used as early as 4000BC by the Babylonians. Their method of writing was to impress wedge-shaped characters on soft clay before baking it-"Cuneiform Writing".
Pottery : The ancient Greeks used to scratch the names of their chosen candidates on pieces of pottery lying around the market place in the earliest democratic elections.
Stone : Permanent records in ancient times were often carved on stone. Perhaps the best known example is the Ten Commandments, handed down to Moses in tablets of stone.
Papyrus : Although the word "paper" is derived from "papyrus", the two have little in common. Papyrus is made from split reeds. It is very brittle, so it cannot be folded like paper. Hence the use of papyrus scrolls, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Invention of Paper

Paper was invented in China in 105AD. T'sai Lun, a minister in the Imperial Palace, discovered how to make it by boiling rags and old fishing nets and beating them into pulp. Papermaking is probably the first industry to make use of recycled raw materials.

This invention of paper had profound implications for economic, social and cultural history. For the first time there was a medium for communication that was cheap and easy to produce, convenient for writing and drawing on, compact and light. No wonder the Chinese guarded their secret jealously!

Europe Before Paper

Before paper, literacy was the privilege of the intellectual minority. News was carried by word of mouth, history was transmitted by poets and storytellers. Trade tended to be done by barter. The achievements of classical literature and philosophy were locked away in monasteries, where the monks had a virtual monopoly in reading and writing. Every book was a hand-written original, taking up to a year to produce.

Paper & Printing : The Great Breakthroughs

The development of movable type in the 15th century and the introduction of papermaking to Europe were two of the most influential factors in the transition from medieval to modern history. Mass communication was now available to anyone who had something to say and access to a printing press. Less than a hundred years after papermaking was introduced to Britain, William Shakespeare was publishing his plays to a newly-literate population all over the country. Mass education began with the foundation of the first Public Schools. Paper made possible the contracts and bills of lading which overseas trading depended on, as well as the maps which marked out the trade routes. As books (and therefore education) became widely available, the new middle class was born. For the first time, people at large were able to read the Bible for themselves and question the authoritarian doctrines which hitherto had been their only religious guidance.

The Industrial Revolution

Industrialization changed papermaking from a cottage industry to a large-scale, high-technology process. Economies of scale resulted in an enormous drop in the price of paper. This coincided with a surge in demand for paper: in books, newspaper, commercial documents and packaging. Paper money and postage stamps were symbols of the role paper played in the economic infrastructure of the country.

The supply of rags which had hitherto provided the raw material for almost all papermaking began to run short, and rag merchants flourished (hence "rags to riches"). For the first time, indigenous and imported wood pulp began to be used for papermaking. Paper mills were built where there was a good supply of water and seaport nearby.

The 20th Century

This century has become the era of global communications. The development of radio, TV, satellites and computers has generated a huge demand for instantaneous news, information and data. Consumption of paper in Britain has increased more than tenfold since 1907.

Paper continues to revolutionize the way we live. Corrugated paper and board have helped make it possible to protect, preserve and transport food more efficiently from all over the world. This has led directly to the growth of supermarkets, which have completely changed the way we do our shopping.

Being non-toxic, biodegradable and essentially a natural product, paper is constantly being put to new uses, from furniture to electrical insulation to hospitals to house building.

The demand for papermaking fibres is now so great that trees are grown and harvested like an agricultural crop. The industry's policy of planting more trees than it uses has resulted in forest areas increasing in size year by year. Today, the ever-increasing demand for fibre is also being met by recycling more waste paper products. In Britain, over 51% of the fibre used for papermaking now comes from recycled paper.

The Spread of Paper Making

From Asia to North Africa and Europe Paper and trade have always been interwoven. The papermaking craft was taken by traders along the silk road from China to the Middle East, reaching Cairo in the 10th century. From Egypt it followed the Mediterranean trade routes to Sicily, Spain and North Africa, finally reaching Central Europe in the 15th century, over a thousand years after its invention by T'sai Lun.