The War of Independence of 1776, Innis explains, was the 
clash between centre and margin, which is identical with the 
conflict between conformity and non-conformity, politics and 
literature, in the sixteenth century. And just as “a colony 
engaged in the fur trade was not in a position to develop 
industries to compete with manufactures of the mother 
country,” so the margins also developed a merely consumer 
attitude to literature and the arts, such as has lingered until 
this century.

     The non-conformists inclined to the reader or consumer 
side, interpreting the meaning of print to be private and 
individual. The conformists inclined to the author-publisher, 
ruler of the new force. It may or may not be significant that 
most of English literature since printing has been created by 
this ruler-oriented minority.