The Religious Tract Society was a British evangelical Christian organization founded in 1799 and known for publishing a variety of popular religious and quasi-religious texts in the 19th century. The society engaged in charity as well as commercial enterprise, publishing books and periodicals for profit. Periodicals published by the RTS included Boy's Own Paper, Girl's Own Paper and The Leisure Hour. Formation and early history The idea for the society came from the Congregationalist minister George Burder, who raised the idea while meeting with the London Missionary Society (founded in 1795) in May 1799. It was formally established on 10 May 1799, having a treasurer, a secretary, and ten committee members, with members required to "[subscribe] half a guinea or upwards annually". Its initial membership was drawn from the London Missionary Society, and included: David Bogue, Independent; Robert Hawker, Anglican; Joseph Hughes, Baptist; and Joseph Reyner as treasurer, business partner of Joseph Hardcastle, Independent. At its formation, the society had support from bishops, including Shute Barrington (Durham) and Beilby Porteus (London). Founders of the RTS would go on to found the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804. Initially, the society's only stated goal was the production and distribution across Britain of religious tracts—short pamphlets explaining the principles of the Christian religion, with the aim of spreading salvation to the masses. The society was interdenominational, including members belonging to most branches of Protestantism in Britain (such as Congregationalists, Baptists, and Quakers), as well as the established churches of England and Scotland; however, it excluded Roman Catholics and Unitarians. Tracts For the first 25 years of the society's existence, its main activity was the publication and distribution of religious tracts. The first RTS tract was David Bogue's An Address to Christians, Recommending the Distribution of Cheap Religious Tracts, which listed seven recommendations for writing effective religious tracts, including that they be "plain", "striking", "entertaining", and "adapted to various situations and conditions" of its audience. These principles would tracts written in the following century. In its first year, the society had a catalogue of 34 distinct tracts, and printed 200,000 copies. Its output increased over the years, and by 1820 its catalogue included 279 tracts, and it was printing more than 5 million annually. From 1814, the society began publishing some tracts specifically for children. Commercial publishing In the 1820s and 1830s, the society began commercially publishing bound books and periodicals for