The Development of Rates of Postage Part 27

II. FOREIGN RATES IN THE BRITISH SERVICE

One of the earliest regular posts in England was the post to Dover, established for the transmission of despatches to and from the Continent.[675] This post early a.s.sumed considerable importance relatively to the other posts. The settlement of foreign artisans in this country, in consequence of the persecutions on the Continent, naturally led to the growth of a considerable intercourse with places abroad. There was besides a large cloth trade. Letters were not, however, sent exclusively by the King's post. Frequently the merchants made their own arrangements for the conveyance of their letters; and since one of the functions of the post in those days was to enable the authorities to keep a close watch on all correspondence pa.s.sing within the realm, in order that conspiracies against the State might be detected, this proceeding of the merchants was viewed by the Government with much jealousy. It led to the first a.s.sumption by the State of the monopoly of the carriage of letters. In 1591, before the use of the posts for the transmission of inland letters for private individuals had been officially recognized, a royal proclamation forbade the conveyance of letters to or from places outside the realm except by the King's post. A further proclamation to the same effect, so far as it related to foreign letters, was issued in 1609.[676]

In 1619 the foreign post was separated from the ordinary post, and a foreigner, Matthew De Quester, who had been appointed by Lord Stanhope, then Master of the Posts, to superintend the foreign post, was appointed to control the service. In 1626 De Quester published the following tariff applicable to foreign letters:--

To or from the Hague, Brussels, Paris, and Vienna 30s.

To or from any part of Germany 6s.

From Venice for a single letter 9d.

From Venice for any letter other than a single letter 2s. 8d.

From Leghorn and Florence for a single letter 1s.

From Leghorn and Florence for any letter other than a single letter 3s. the ounce.[677]

The tariff was incomplete, but is noteworthy as the first set of rates of any description issued in England for the conveyance of letters by post. Stanhope had charged certain fees on letters for the Continent. On letters to or from Amsterdam or Hamburg, for example, his fee had been 8d.[678] But, until this time, no general table of rates had been issued.

By the Ordinance of 1657[679] the following rates for foreign letters were established:--

--------------------------------------------------------------- For a Single Double Per Letter. Letter. ounce.

---------------------------------------+-------+-------+------- d. d. d.

To Leghorn, Genoa, Florence, Lyons, Ma.r.s.eilles, Aleppo, Constantinople 12 24 45 To St. Malo, Morlaix, Nieuhaven 6 12 18 To Bordeaux, Roch.e.l.le, Nantes, Bayonne, Cadiz, Madrid 9 18 24 To Hamburg, Frankfort, Cologne 8 16 24 To Dantzic, Leipsic, Lubeck, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Elsinore, Konigsberg 12 24 48 ---------------------------------------+-------+-------+-------

No rates were fixed for letters pa.s.sing outside Europe.

These rates were not substantially altered by the Act of 1660, although in some cases a variation according to the route followed was introduced. For example, a letter sent to the North of Italy via Lyons was charged 3d. more than a letter sent direct.

Under James II rates of postage (6d. a single letter, 1s. a double letter, and 2s. the ounce) were fixed for letters to and from Jamaica, although no service to and from the island was provided by the Crown.

In 1686 regular mail services were established under contract between Dover and Calais and between Dover and Ostend, and in 1687 a service between England and Holland. It is probable that packets were sailing between Dover and Calais before that time,[680] but in general the cross-Channel services had previously been conducted by boats hired casually for the conveyance of particular mails. For the Calais service a sum of 1,170 a year was paid, and for the Dutch service a sum of 900 a year.[681]

Letters from abroad brought by merchant s.h.i.+ps (known as "s.h.i.+p letters") were by the Ordinance of 1657[682] and by the Act of 1660 made subject to postage on arrival in this country. Such letters were required to be given up to the postmaster at the port of arrival, who forwarded the letters to London, where they were charged with the proper amount of postage. No payment was made to the s.h.i.+pmaster in respect of letters handed over to the Post Office in this way, and no penalty was incurred if the letters were not so handed over. This part of the Act consequently remained a dead letter. The farmers of the Post Office saw, however, that it would be profitable to them to offer a small pecuniary inducement to the s.h.i.+pmasters, and accordingly offered to pay a penny for every letter brought by private s.h.i.+p and handed over by the s.h.i.+pmaster to the postmaster of the port of arrival.[683] As the farmers were able to charge the legal rate of inland postage on all such letters, there was a sufficient margin to leave a profit after payment of the penny. The regular s.h.i.+p letter fee, which was afterwards legalized, originated in this practice.

Most of the s.h.i.+p letters came to the port of London, and the establishment of the penny post in 1680 had a serious effect on the proceeds of the s.h.i.+p letter money. If the letters were for delivery in London, they could be dropped into the penny post for delivery at a penny each, whereas if handed in to the General Post Office as s.h.i.+p letters they would be charged at the appropriate foreign rates, according to their place of origin. Thus, letters from Ma.r.s.eilles for delivery in London would be charged 1s. each, although the service actually performed by the Post Office was no greater than that performed for a penny in the penny post. The foreign rates, as applied to s.h.i.+p letters, were therefore for the most part a simple tax, and the use of the penny post was greatly resorted to.[684] The Postmasters-General protested continually against this fraud on the revenue; and in 1696, in order to put a stop to it, two officers were appointed whose duty it was to receive letters and packets from all "masters of s.h.i.+ps and vessels, mariners, and pa.s.sengers as shall be by them hereafter brought in any s.h.i.+ps or vessels into the Port of London."[685]

The payment of a penny a letter to the s.h.i.+pmasters was without legal sanction until the Act of 1711.[686] This Act revised the foreign rates, in general in an upward direction, the increase on the rates of 1660 varying from 1d. to 3d., and first established statutory rates for letters pa.s.sing to or from the colonies. From London to or from the West Indies the rate was 18d. for a single letter, and to or from New York 12d. The rate to the West Indies was, in 1765, reduced to 1s. for a single letter, and this rate became in course of time the standard for all colonial letters.

In 1796, in addition to the ordinary s.h.i.+lling rate, letters from the colonies were subjected to a charge at the inland rate in respect of transmission within this country: e.g., a letter from America would be charged the s.h.i.+lling rate, and the inland rate from Falmouth to its destination. An addition of 4d. was also made to the rates on letters to or from places abroad, other than places in the colonies. In 1805 an additional penny was laid on letters between Great Britain and the American Colonies.

The Act of 1711 had made illegal the despatch by private s.h.i.+p of letters which could be sent by the regular packets; but for places to which no packet service existed, s.h.i.+pmasters were free to accept and carry letters, and to charge what fees they chose. So far as it directed that all letters for places abroad should be sent by packet where a packet service existed, the Act was ineffective. From the chief coffee-houses in the City of London it was customary to collect letters to be sent in this way by private s.h.i.+p where no packet service existed. This practice was extended to those places to which there was a packet service, and became generally recognized. s.h.i.+pmasters usually charged a fee of 2d.

per letter,[687] and the whole traffic was conducted independently of the Post Office.

No attempt was made to collect postage on letters conveyed by private s.h.i.+p, whether received or despatched by such s.h.i.+p, except in respect of transmission within the kingdom. The penny authorized by the Act of 1711 went to the master of the s.h.i.+p. About the year 1790 Frederick Bourne, a clerk in the foreign department of the Post Office, suggested a scheme which should bring all s.h.i.+p letters into the post and subject them to postage for foreign transmission. He proposed that inward s.h.i.+p letters should be charged a uniform rate of 4d., and outward letters should be charged half the packet rate; for those places to which there was no packet rate, the rate was to be based on what the packet rate might be presumed to be if a packet service existed. In view of the long period during which the provisions of the Act of Anne had not been enforced in this respect, Pitt was unwilling to attempt to suppress the illegal practice which had grown up. He considered that in respect of outward letters the service performed by the Post Office, which amounted to no more than sealing the bags and handing them to the s.h.i.+pmaster, was insufficient to justify compulsory payment of packet postage. The proposal was therefore adopted only as a permissive measure: merchants were given the option of handing their letters to the Post Office. The Act authorizing the change empowered the Post Office to despatch and receive letters by vessels other than the regular sailing packets. On letters despatched by private s.h.i.+p the Post Office was authorized to charge half the packet rates in the case of letters for places to which a packet service existed; in cases in which no rate of postage was established, the charge was to be half the rates then paid, as near as could be ascertained.[688] On letters brought in by such vessels, in addition to the inland postage, a charge of 4d. a single letter, and so in proportion, was authorized. A fee of 2d. was payable to the master of the s.h.i.+p in respect of every letter delivered to or received from him by the Post Office in proper course.

A s.h.i.+p Letter Office was opened on the 10th September 1799. No vessel was allowed to make entry or break bulk until letters brought by it had been handed over to the Post Office. The chief object in view was not, however, achieved. Letters sent out of the country by private s.h.i.+p still continued for the most part to be handed to the s.h.i.+pmaster without the intervention of the Post Office. Efforts were made to secure the a.s.sistance of coffee-house keepers as agents of the Post Office, but without success; and for many years the proportion between incoming and outgoing private s.h.i.+p letters was eighteen to one.[689]

In 1814 a further s.h.i.+p Letter Act[690] raised the rate on inward single letters from 4d. to 6d., and made it compulsory to hand all outward s.h.i.+p letters to the Post Office to be charged. The East India Company, whose servants had previously been allowed to send and receive letters free, protested strongly against the new Act, although the official correspondence of the Company had been exempted. The Company pointed out that the Post Office maintained no packet communication with the East Indies, and to charge postage was to levy a charge where no service was performed, and in effect to lay a tax on letter-writing. They had a stronger weapon than sound argument: the s.h.i.+ps sailing between England and India were to a large extent controlled by them, and the Act laid no compulsion on the owners of private s.h.i.+ps to carry letters for the Post Office. When, therefore, the Post Office requested the Company to carry post letters to India, the Company replied that they did "not see fit to authorize the commanders or owners of any of their s.h.i.+ps to take charge of any bag of letters from the Post Office subjected to a rate of postage for sea conveyance."[691] In consequence of this difficulty an Act was pa.s.sed in 1815 making it compulsory on all s.h.i.+pmasters to carry such mails as should be tendered to them by the Post Office. The Post Office was required to pay the owners a reasonable sum as remuneration for the carriage of the letters, the ordinary fee of 2d. a letter still being paid to the commander as a perquisite. The East India Company was placated by the concession of further exemptions in its favour. By this Act the rate of postage to India or the Cape was fixed at 14d. the ounce on letters, and on newspapers at 3d. the ounce--the first enactment providing a lower rate for newspapers than for letters in the foreign service.[692]

The result of this Act was eminently satisfactory. In the first eighteen months or so the postage on letters for India and the Cape of Good Hope amounted to 11,658, while the amount paid for the conveyance by private s.h.i.+p was only 1,250; although it should be explained that expense was incurred for less than half the number of despatches, the remainder being conveyed by his Majesty's s.h.i.+ps, or by s.h.i.+ps of the East India Company which were placed at the disposal of the Post Office free of charge.

Other minor changes were made in subsequent years. In 1836 a postal treaty was arranged with France, under which certain rates--in general, rates slightly lower than those previously in force--were agreed for all letters pa.s.sing through France.

The rates for colonial letters were revised when uniform postage was introduced in the inland service. They were made chargeable according to weight, and for transmission to any port in the colonies were fixed generally at 1s. the 1/2 ounce.

In 1850, on political grounds, the Postmaster-General[693] proposed the establishment of a general 1s. rate for all colonial letters. The proposal was not immediately adopted, but a few years later a rate of 6d. the 1/2 ounce was established for all parts of the Empire except India, the Cape, Mauritius, and Tasmania. This rate was extended to all the colonies in 1857, and to the United States in 1868. In 1869 the rate for letters to the United States, Canada, and Prince Edward Island was reduced to 3d. In 1875 the Universal Postal Union rate of 2-1/2d. came into operation. The next great advance was the result mainly of the efforts of Sir J. Henniker Heaton, who for many years advocated the facilitation of postal intercourse, especially within the Empire. In 1898 penny postage was established between the United Kingdom and all the chief colonies except Australia, the Cape, and Natal. In 1905 these colonies joined, and were followed by Egypt and the Sudan.

In 1907 a special rate of 1d. a pound was established for magazines and trade journals posted in the United Kingdom, for Canada. The rate did not cover the cost of service, and its justification is to be sought in political considerations. In order to secure the low rate Canada undertook to defray the whole cost of ocean transport. Difficulties in regard to the financial arrangements arose subsequently, and on the 1st January 1915 the rate was altered to the following, viz. 1d. for the first 6 ounces, 1-1/2d. for 1-1/2 pounds, 2-1/2d. for 2-1/2 pounds, and so on.

Under the old system the rates of postage were for the most part nominal, that is to say, no attempt was made to adjust the rates to the actual cost of providing the service, although in allocating between the different States the total amount of postage, a rough a.s.signment as between land and sea services was made.[694] The usual 6d. rate for single letters to and from the various colonies ill.u.s.trates this. The actual cost of service must have varied greatly. In the case of the colonies other considerations, mainly political, were allowed to enter.

In the case of foreign countries the whole arrangements for the interchange of correspondence were based on such agreements as could be arrived at, and the actual rates of postage were determined in that way.[695] The chief difficulties in negotiations occurred in connection with the division between the contracting parties of the postage collected. The packet service was often conducted at a loss, and the rates of postage on foreign and colonial letters were not, in general, fixed with a view to rendering the service self-supporting, although this was regarded as a condition to be aimed at.[696]

By the Consolidating Acts of 1837 (1 Vict., cap. 34 & 36) the Postmaster-General was empowered to require the masters of outward-bound vessels to accept mails, and to deliver them without delay on arrival at the port of destination, under penalty of 200.

The general character of the foreign packet service was entirely changed by the introduction of steam propulsion, which greatly shortened the length of voyages and introduced a degree of punctuality and regularity hitherto undreamt of. Until this time the Post Office had, for many long-distance services, relied on its own packets; i.e. packets sailing under contract expressly for the conveyance of the mails and under the control of the Post Office. In 1818, with the introduction of steam vessels, this policy was changed and that of Crown owners.h.i.+p of the packets adopted. This method was found extremely costly, and the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry reported emphatically against it.[697]

The policy of providing for the service by contract was then reverted to. It now appeared, however, that vessels sailing for commercial purposes could be counted upon to sail and arrive regularly, and the Government desired therefore to make use of them for the despatch of mails. It was proposed to forward mails by the _Great Western_ under the powers conferred on the Postmaster-General by the Act of 1837 (1 Vict.

34, -- 19) for the prescribed remuneration (-- 24). The owners refused to carry mails on these terms, and the Law Officers advised that the Postmaster-General had no power, either by Statute or Common Law, to compel the owners to carry mails.[698] It was not found necessary, perhaps it was not deemed wise, to follow up the question of powers. In 1839 a contract was entered into with Samuel Cunard for the provision of a steams.h.i.+p service between England and North America, at a cost to the Post Office of 55,000 a year. This policy proved successful. It has been followed in the case of all the great routes, and has continued until the present day.

In considering the question of the rates of postage the sums paid to the s.h.i.+pping companies are a little misleading. The payments were not then, and are not now, made solely from regard to the fact that the vessels convey mails. Other considerations, such as the desirability of encouraging the s.h.i.+pping industry, its value to the commerce of the nation, and the value of a strong mercantile marine as a naval reserve, have always entered largely into the question. It was in accordance with this view, and largely on account of abuses in the administration of the services by the Post Office which had come to light, that the control of the Post Office packet services and of contracts for the conveyance of mails by sea was in 1837 transferred from the Post Office to the Admiralty. The control was in 1860 retransferred to the Post Office, but the amount of the subsidies paid to steams.h.i.+p companies conveying mails has continued to be influenced by other than purely Post Office considerations. The chief development in this direction has been a legal decision obtained in 1889, in a dispute between the Post Office and the Cunard Steams.h.i.+p Company, which arose from an attempt by the Post Office to introduce the American system of despatching mails by the fastest s.h.i.+ps available, and paying, not a general subsidy, but a sum calculated on the basis of the weight of mails carried. The High Court ruled that the Postmaster-General is ent.i.tled to have all such mails as he may think fit received on board any of the Company's s.h.i.+ps and conveyed and delivered at the ports of destination without delay.[699] Failing agreement as to the payment to be made in respect of such services, the Post Office can fall back on its statutory right to the conveyance by merchant s.h.i.+p of all letter mails at the rate of a halfpenny a letter.

The extension of penny postage to all countries has been prevented simply by financial considerations.[700] In 1910 the question of establis.h.i.+ng penny postage with France received a good deal of public attention both in this country and in France, but the Government were not prepared at that time to face the sacrifice of revenue.

III. THE THURN AND TAXIS POSTS IN GERMANY

The great number of the princ.i.p.alities which made up the Germany of the early Middle Ages, the mutual jealousy of the princes, and the indefinite authority of the Emperor, made the introduction of any sort of general system of communication extremely difficult. But for a long period before posts of the ordinary type were established in Germany, there existed throughout the Empire a system of messengers (_Boten-Anstalten_).

These establishments were maintained by the political administration, by the scholastic inst.i.tutions, by political corporations, by merchant bodies, or by private individuals.[701] Their function was to effect the exchange of the correspondence of their founders. In addition, the occasional posts (_Metzger_), merchants travelling to the fairs, judicial and Imperial messengers, and pilgrim monks were much employed for the carrying of letters.

The system of _Boten-Anstalten_ was widely extended, and its functions were not limited to the conveyance of letters.[702] Its messengers travelled some of the great routes, such as Hamburg-Stettin-Danzig; Hamburg-Leipzig-Nuremberg; Cologne-Frankfort-Augsburg; and these services were more or less permanent in character. Services on other routes were established to meet local or temporary needs, such as the a.s.sembly of the Reichstag, the meeting of the Electors, Peace Congresses, War Conferences, and fairs; and these services were discontinued when the occasion which had required them disappeared.

The organization of this system of messengers resembled in many ways that of ordinary posts: it was established and managed by the political authorities; the services were regular; the routes were fixed and stages were appointed; and the messengers undertook the conveyance of letters, goods, and persons, by foot, horse, or wagon.[703] At a later date letter-carriers were employed in some instances for the delivery of letters conveyed by the messenger services. A charge of 3 pf. was raised on letters so delivered, the delivery charge on letters obtained directly from the _Botenmeister_ being 1 pf.[704]

The intellectual awakening of the early sixteenth century, the great discoveries of that period and their effect on commerce, together with the tendency then developing towards amalgamation of the princ.i.p.alities and creation of larger political ent.i.ties, all increased the necessity for an efficient system of intercommunication. The result is seen in the establishment of an Imperial system of posts.[705]

The regular Imperial posts were established towards the end of the fifteenth century by the Emperor Maximilian I. Johann von Taxis was the first Imperial Postmaster, and the earliest record of his tenure of the office is in 1489.[706] A decree suppressing the system of _Boten-Anstalten_ and the _Metzgerposten_ was issued, but these posts continued, and it was discovered at a later date that their continuance was not incompatible with the maintenance of a system of Imperial posts.[707]

The Imperial posts were to provide more particularly for the transmission of despatches, and their immediate object was to provide a means of obtaining information regarding the Turks, and a means of communication with the princes of neighbouring territories.[708] Their history is inseparable from that of the family of Thurn and Taxis, to whom their management was from the first entrusted. This family was of Italian origin, and before the establishment of the Imperial posts, Roger the First of Thurn and Taxis had established a horse-post between Italy and the Tyrol, which proved of so much value to the Empire that as a reward Roger was made a chevalier. On the routes along which the Imperial posts were laid, stages were fixed at intervals of about 5 (German) miles, and messengers were stationed at each stage.[709] These messengers from the first enjoyed the privilege of exemption from all taxes and charges in all the countries through which the post routes pa.s.sed. The posts were solely for the service of the Emperor, and at his charge; and at first, like the earlier messenger services, were established temporarily for special purposes, such as the movements of the Imperial Court, or to meet necessities arising from war; or permanently to provide services between distant and newly acquired territory.[710]

In 1500 Francis von Taxis was appointed _capitaine et maitre de nos postes_ at Ghent by Philip the Fair, son of the Emperor Maximilian I, and in 1505 a convention was concluded between Philip and von Taxis under which the latter undertook to establish a line of posts between the Court of Maximilian I, the Court of the French King, and the Spanish Court, for a payment of 12,000 livres a year. The German and Spanish services were intended to maintain permanent and regular communications.

The French post was intended to facilitate diplomatic intercourse.[711]

The time occupied in the transmission of letters between Innsbruck and Brussels at this period was 5-1/2 days in summer and 6-1/2 days in winter; between Paris and Brussels 44 hours; and between Granada and Brussels 15 days.

Owing to financial difficulties the payments to von Taxis from the royal exchequer could not be kept up, and in order to maintain the service another source of revenue had to be discovered. It was found in the acceptance for transmission by the posts of private letters, and in allowing the use of the posts by private persons desirous of travelling.

This was made part of the ordinary business of the posts, with the reservation that the use of the posts by private persons should not interfere with or impede the official service.[712]