Shakespeare, the paywall, and the benefits of copyright
How did Shakespeare become so great? Economically speaking, it all had to do with market economies—at least according to the New York Times: Those who paid could enter and see the play; those who didn’t, couldn’t. By the time Shakespeare turned to writing, these “cultural paywalls” were abundant in London: workers holding moneyboxes (bearing the distinctive knobs found by the archaeologists) stood at the entrances of a growing number of outdoor playhouses, collecting a penny for admission. At day’s end, actors and theater owners smashed open the earthenware moneyboxes and divided the daily take. From those proceeds dramatists were paid […]
