The Licensing of the Press Act 1662, entitled "An Act for preventing the frequent Abuses in printing seditious treasonable and unlicensed Books and Pamphlets and for regulating of Printing and Printing Presses",[0] gave the Stationers' Company a monopoly on printing - only people licensed by the Company could operate printing presses, and similarly nobody was allowed to sell books unless licensed. The Company also had the power, under its royal charter, to make regulations about printing, effectively creating a private system of copyright controlled by the Company.

The Licensing of the Press Act 1662 had to be continually renewed, but eventually it lapsed in 1692. Publishers lobbied hard for the act to be reinstated but all attempts failed to pass through the House of Commons.

It wasn't until 1710 that authors gained a time-limited exclusive statutory right to control the printing of their books (and only books), with what would be the first "modern" public copyright law in the Copyright Act 1710 (also known as the Statute of Anne), and naturally this right was exploited by publishers (just as it is today) who refused to publish without acquiring the rights along with the manuscript.

[0] https://www.british-history.ac.uk/statutes-realm/vol5/pp428-...