After the organization of the Stationers’ Company the exercise of the trade was limited to its members. The Company was required to keep registers giving the names of the Masters and Wardens, of all the members of the Company and their apprentices, and of all who “took up freedom,” that is to say, became members of the Company from time to time. All books printed were required to be registered with the Company and a copy deposited in the archives accompanied by a fee. This was the beginning of copyright. It was understood that the members of the Company should respect each others’ rights to publications thus registered, although it appears to have been a “gentleman’s agreement” rather than a regulation. This requirement did not apply to books which were published under royal privilege, but the members of the Company were bound to respect these privileges and not in any way infringe upon the rights which they conferred. The requirement of registration did not apply to the king’s printers in so far as their patent for the royal printing extended; that is to say, the royal printer was not required to register statutes, law books, or other government printing, but he was required to register all general publications. This legislation requiring registration was not always strictly enforced. The powers of the Company were used much more for the regulation and control of printing than for the improvement of the art. It was to the Company that the government looked particularly for the enforcement of the statutes regarding printing. For that reason, if a book were of doubtful character and liable to be prohibited the publisher preferred to run the chance of attempting to evade the regulation regarding registration. Fortunately the registers of the Company containing the records of all their transactions are for the most part still in existence. They furnish an immense fund of valuable information extending over a very long period. The Stationers’ Company included the printers, bookbinders, type-founders, and booksellers. It had ninety-seven charter members. A few of the London printers are known not to have joined the Company when it was organized. Why they stood out we do not know. Very likely it was simply the usual assertion of British independence and impatience of control. The requirement of membership in the Company as a requisite to carrying on the business was not enforced with regard to those printers who were in business when the Company was chartered, its application being restricted to those who might thereafter desire to enter the business. Some of the independents afterwards joined the Company. The remainder stayed out permanently.