“The Plan to reform the abuses found to subsist by extravagant charges of stationary [sic] is to Establish an Office under the management of a Comptroller from which every Office and Person entitled to be supplied with stationary is to be served.”
Thus spoke John Mayor
of the Treasury, who was instructed in 1783 to find out all he could about “stationary”.
The government was intent on dispensing with “several useless, expensive and
unnecessary Offices” and the extravagant charges made for stationery were among
the abuses William Pitt who came to power in 1784 was keen to remove.
John Mayor Plan was to
establish a “Stationary Office” (S.O.) which would provide the civil service
with office supplies. Until then, stationers had contracts with the different
government offices; they bought cheaply from the makers and sold at high price
in the safety of their monopoly. Under the new system, the S.O. would buy from
the maker and charge the buyer “at prime cost; no arbitrary price to be
permitted.”
The S.O. was established
in 1786 and started supplying public offices in 1787. Its customers included
the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Business grew and in 1812 the
Treasury ordered that buying by the S.O. of all stationery would be by open
competition, and that preference would be given to the lowest tender. In 1823 it
was made obligatory that all public Departments should buy all stationery from
the S.O. The list of items S.O. was to provide was as follows:
Paper
|
Binding, Ruling, etc.
|
Parchment & Vellums
|
Almanacks
|
Printing
|
Court Calendars
|
Court Guides
|
Scissors
|
Directories
|
Wafer Boxes – Tin
|
Cards
|
Wafer Boxes – Paper
|
Erasers
|
Despatch Boxes
|
Hones
|
Bramah’s Pens & Holders
|
Ferrett
|
Tape
|
Laces
|
Memorandum Books
|
Black Ink
|
Seal Engraving
|
Ink stands – Glass
|
Copper Plate Printing
|
Packing Cases
|
|
Ink stands – Lead
Ink stands – Ebony
|
Ink Casks
|
India Rubber
|
Leather Bags
|
Ivory Folders
|
Army & Navy Lists
|
Lead pressers
|
Statutes
|
Pasteboards
|
Files – Pasteboard
|
Pounce & Boxes
|
Files – Wire
|
Card Boards
|
Silk Cord
|
Pencils
|
Needles
|
Pens & Quills
|
Pins
|
Cord
|
Marking Ink
|
Rulers
|
Japan Ink
|
Wax
|
Leather Straps
|
Wafers
|
Sand
|
Strops
|
Sand Boxes
|
Instead of collecting payments from each department it was ruled in 1823 that the S.O. would buy all stationery and printing from an amount of money to be provided to it annually by Parliament. This system replaced the previous one under which the S.O. collected payments from individual departments. The new arrangement rested in place for 156 years.
Source: Hugh Barty-King, Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1786-1986, HMSO 1986.
All S.O. supplies bore the initials of the Stationery Office and a crown.
See Palimpsest's growing S.O. collection on Flickr.