concept without the legislation. Economic chaos also resulted; with the Company now unable to enforce any monopoly, provincial towns began establishing printing presses, producing cheaper books than the London booksellers. The absence of the censorship provisions also opened Britain up as a market for internationally printed books, which were similarly cheaper than those British printers could produce. Attempts at replacement The rejection of the existing system was not done with universal approval, and there were ultimately twelve unsuccessful attempts to replace it. The first was introduced to the House of Commons on 11 February 1695. A committee, again led by Clarke, was to write a "Bill for the Better Regulating of Printing and the Printing Presses". This bill was essentially a copy of the Licensing Act, but with a narrower jurisdiction; only books covering religion, history, the affairs of the state or the law would require official authorisation. Four days after its introduction, the Stationers' held an emergency meeting to agree to petition the Commons – this was because the bill did not contain any reference to books as property, eliminating their monopoly on copying. Clarke also had issues with the provisions, and the debate went on until the end of the Parliamentary session, with the bill failing to pass. With the end of the Parliamentary session came the first general election under the Triennial Act 1694, which required the Monarch to dissolve Parliament every 3 years, causing a general election. This led to the "golden age" of the English electorate, and allowed for the forming of two major political parties – the Whigs and Tories. At the same time, with the failure to renew the Licensing Act, a political press developed. While the Act had been in force only one official newspaper existed; the London Gazette, published by the government. After its demise, a string of newspapers sprang into being, including the Flying Post, the Evening Post and the Daily Courant. Newspapers had a strong bias towards particular parties, with the Courant and the Flying Post supporting the Whigs and the Evening Post in favour of the Tories, leading to politicians from both parties realising the importance of an efficient propaganda machine in influencing the electorate. This added a new dimension to the Commons' decision to reject two new renewals of the Licensing Act in the new Parliamentary session. Authors, as well as Stationers, then joined the demand for