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Development of the Postal Service
The development of the post grew in different ways in different countries, always according to local conditions. The transportation of messages and letters led to the birth of a postal service as we know it today, only when this was required by the development of a country, the economic conditions, and the growth of trade. As soon as the significant importance of a postal service became evident, it was taken over by the ruler or the State. From modest, private beginnings a well organized service arose with its own staff, means of transportation and buildings.
Those who ran a postal service were doing all they could to make as large a profit as possible, be they private persons, rulers or the State. At first, the charges for the delivery of letters was left to the discretion of the carrier and the means of the sender or addressee. Only much later did they develop into postal rates graded according to the weight of the letter and the distance. These rates naturally varied from country to country.
Up to the middle of the nineteenth century, it was expensive to send a letter. People, therefore, looked for cheaper methods. Shortly before the introduction of postage stamps, a merchant in England confessed that in 1836, he received 2068 letters through the post but 5000 by other means. Another citizen had received 117 letter in the same year, but only seven had arrived through the State post. A letter sent a distance of about one hundred miles cost between four and nine pence, and for every extra one hundred miles another penny was added.
The illegal service was handled mostly by cartmen. It must have been rather profitable as some of them made it their permanent business. One of these cartmen admitted confidentially that of the twenty thousand times he violated the rules of the State monopoly of postal services, he had been caught only once. Practically everyone who embarked on a journey took letters with them. This practice made their journey cheaper and sometimes even created a profit. In England, severe laws were passed aimed at curtailing this practice – but to no avail. As long as the postal rates were high, people continued to look for cheaper methods.
The problems became even greater when it was necessary to send a letter abroad. It was practically impossible to pay the postage rate in advance. In many cases, nobody could say which way the letter would travel, and the price was calculated according to the real distance the letter had covered. A flooded river or a bridge torn away could result in the letter traveling an additional one hundred miles. Moreover, whenever a letter had to cross frontiers – and there were a great number, especially in Germany which was split into many tiny states – the postal rates increased dramatically due to transit charges. The postage was therefore mostly collected from the addressee.
Postage stamps with set prices have alleviated many of these problems in modern society. The forms of transport have improved and the efficiency of the postal service is well recognized in today’s contemporary world.
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