I'm not sure, if this is the right sub, to post this question. I did some research in the internet with no real satisfactory result. My question is: What was the color of paper around the year 1700? Today, paper from this time looks mostly brownish, but that might be from yellowing over time, right? What was its original color?
Paper was often made from flax fibers, usually gotten from old linen clothing and worked up in a paper mill. While there could be a variety of colors of linen coming in, it is very easy to bleach it out and the better portion of old items coming in were already bleached (shirts, shifts, etc). The result would be a soft, natural white.