On the same floor is the printer’s “counting room” or what would nowadays be called his “accounting department.” Here he kept the numerous business records called for by the cumbersome bookkeeping systems of that day, penned business letters, and perhaps wrote out in longhand the material he intended for publication in the _Virginia Gazette_. Eighteenth-century printers often engaged in several other businesses at the same time—importing goods of almost any kind, selling farm products on commission, and trying anything that might turn a penny. Excavation of the Printing Office site and careful study of the surviving eighteenth-century foundations and brick flooring gave evidence—in the form of reinforced footings—as to where at least one press may have stood. This was in the lower floor of the building, where again today the shop’s printing operation is concentrated. There the three presses mentioned earlier occupy the center of the room, all of them in working order. Large racks for the storage of type line the wall, surmounted by open, slanting cases of type in current use. The cases contain a complete set of Caslon letters, from the diminutive Nonpareil (6-point) to Six Line Pica (72-point), which is one inch tall. Usually the printer employs the Pica (12-point) and English (14-point) sizes, which were customarily used in colonial times. He and his colleagues identified type sizes by name only; since the present point system was not in use then. Printer’s ink and its ingredients—varnish, lampblack or vermilion, and linseed oil—are kept in saltglaze jugs. Other vessels contain drinking water, and the wetting trough is filled, ready for dampening paper before printing. On the floor, weighted boards atop stacks of wetted paper keep the sheets from curling as the dampness permeates evenly throughout the pile. [Illustration: _Title page of AN INQUIRY ..., printed by Alexander Purdie. Written in the midst of the Stamp Act controversy, this influential pamphlet presented a reasoned view of the colonists’ position. It appeared before Purdie formed a partnership with John Dixon._] AN INQUIRY INTO THE Rights of the BRITISH Colonies, Intended as an Anſwer to _The Regulations lately made concerning the Colonies, and the Taxes impoſed upon them conſidered._ In a Letter addreſſed to the Author of that Pamphlet. By _RICHARD BLAND_, of Virginia. _Dedit omnibus Deus pro virili portione ſapientiam, ut et inaudita inveſtigare poſſent et audita perpendere._ Lactantius. WILLIAMSBURG: Printed by Alexander Purdie, & C^o. MDCCLXVI.