From the Warminster Miscellany, Saturday 1st June 1861
An Excise return just issued shows how the number of paper mills at work in the United Kingdom has been gradually decreasing for years.
In 1838 it was 525; in 1860 only 384.
The decrease in England in that period was from 416 to 306; in Ireland, from 60 to 26.
But the quantity of paper manufactured rose from 93,466,286 lb. at the former date (1838) to 223,575,285 lb. in 1860.