If it turns out that a significant proportion of the songs sung by traditional singers from the 19th/20th centuries had their origins in the broadside presses, I'm still not convinced that this says anything in particular (for or against) the creativity of working class people. After all I've heard plenty of great singers, in my time, who weren't songwriters. Again selection and transformation are not only important aspects of the 'folk process' but are also important creative acts in their own right. If it turns out that Harry Cox 'merely' selected and transformed 'Van Dieman's Land' and 'Betsy the Serving Maid' that would in no way diminish my admiration for him as an artist.

In addition I would imagine that very few broadside hacks were aristos down on their luck or failed merchants. I would guess that they actually came from considerably lower down the social scale and understood their audiences very well (and I wonder how many of them could sing?). And none of this denies the possibility that those self-same hacks derived some of their material from existing oral material and hence put it back into circulation or even gave it a wider circulation.