  RATES AND FINANCE After de Quester had been appointed Foreign Postmaster-General, he published, in 1626, an incomplete set of rates from and to various places on the continent. His charges for "packets," and by packets he meant letters or parcels carried by a special messenger, were as follows:— To the Hague £7. The ordinary rates were:— To or from any of the above places 30s. This system of rates, although crude, marks a distinct era in postal progress. It forms the foundation of the plan which was perfected a few years later by Witherings. De Quester also published a statement of the days of departure of the regular posts with foreign letters. Witherings' rates for domestic postage, as fixed by Royal Proclamation in 1635, were as follows for a single letter:—
If there were more than one sheet of paper, postage must be paid according to the above rate for every separate sheet or enclosure. For instance, a letter or packet composed of two sheets was called a double letter and paid 4d. for any distance under 80 miles. A letter of three sheets was called a triple letter and paid 6d. if conveyed under 80 miles, and so in proportion.
This expedient must have been adopted from the difficulty in discovering the number of enclosures when there were more than two. It is impossible to say how long these rates continued, probably not later than Witherings' rÉgime. During Prideaux' management the maximum postage on a single letter was 6d., reduced later to 3d. The Council of State gave orders in 1652 for the imposition of the following rates for a single letter:—
Whether these rates were actually collected is questionable. The postage which the farmers of the Posts were allowed to collect in the following year was fixed by the Council of State for single letters as follows:—
These rates are in effect lower than those of Witherings, for he had inserted a 3d. rate for letters delivered between 80 and 140 miles from London, had charged 4d. for all letters going farther than 140 miles, and had charged 8d. and 9d. for letters to Scotland and Ireland respectively. They were a little higher than those of 1652, for by them 2d. had carried a letter 100 miles. In 1657, the first act of Parliament was passed, fixing rates for letters and establishing the system for England, Ireland, and Scotland. The domestic rates were:—
The foreign rates were:—
These rates are considerably lower than those of Witherings and are essentially the same as those of 1653, except that the postage is fixed for letters to and from the continent. No provision is made for letters to and from any other part of the world but Europe. Since the government had not established any postal communication with Asia, Africa, or the Americas, it would have been unfair to demand postage on letters conveyed by merchant vessels to and from those places. The act of 1660 is generally referred to as bringing the Post Office under Parliamentary control and as the basis of the modern system. This is probably due to the fact that the act of 1657 was passed by a Commonwealth Parliament and signed by Cromwell. Whether its authors lacked the power to give it validity, they did not lack the brains to pass an excellent act, and although the Royalists saw fit, after the Restoration, to dub it the pretended act of 1657, they could not improve it and had the sense to leave it largely untouched. The first act had imposed rates from or to any place to or from London as a centre. It had been taken for granted that all letters passed to, from, or through the capital, and to all intents and purposes this was so. It was possible, however, for letters, technically called bye-letters, to stop short of London, and it was to provide for these that postage was to be reckoned from any place where a letter might be posted. Scotland was no longer a part of England after the Restoration, so that by the act of 1660 rates were given to and from Berwick and for single letters were a penny less than they had been to Scotland under the earlier act. From Berwick the rate, within a radius of forty miles, was 2d. for a single letter, and over forty miles, 4d. As far as foreign postage was concerned, letters to the northern coast towns of Italy paid 3d. less than the old rate for a single letter. Other rates remained the same. Alternative routes were sometimes offered. For instance, letters might be sent directly to northern Italy or they might go via Lyons, but in the latter case they cost 3d. more. Again, there were many more continental towns to which letters might be sent and from which they might be received. Letters for Germany via Hamburg had to be postpaid When the Scotch was separated from the English Post Office in 1695, rates were imposed by the Parliament of Scotland as follows:
Packages of papers were to pass as triple letters. It has been customary to point to the postage rates of 1660 as lower than any before the nineteenth century. This is true in a general way, but one limitation to the statement is generally overlooked. Before 1696 all posts ran to or from London, and it was not until well on in the eighteenth century that the system of cross In James the Second's reign, a Post Office had been established in Jamaica, and rates of postage had been settled not only in the island itself but between it and the mother country. This was a new departure, since at that time there were no packet boats to the West Indies. The rate between England and Jamaica was 6d. for a single letter, 1s. for a double letter, and 2s. an ounce. As the Crown was not at the expense of maintaining means of transport, this was a pure tax. In 1698, a system of posts had been established in the American colonies between the largest towns on the Atlantic coast. All that is known about the rates is that the charge for the conveyance of a letter between Boston and New York was 1s. and the post went weekly between those places.
These rates were said to be too high and were not adopted, "it being found that cheap postage greatly encourages letter writing, as is shown by the reduction in England from 6d. to 3d." The preamble to the act of 1711 offered as an explanation of an increase in rates the necessity for money for the war and the prevention of private competition in carrying letters. It is plain that higher rates will, up to a certain point, increase proceeds, though not proportionately, but how increased rates can decrease competition is more difficult to explain. Witherings had found that the cheaper he made postage, the less fear was there from interlopers. It is possible that the framers of the bill had intended to use part of the increase in revenue for the support of searchers, but no such provision is contained in the act itself. The rates for single letters within England and between England and Edinburgh were increased by a penny for a single letter; for double letters and parcels in proportion. To Dublin the charge remained the same, and the rates within Ireland were not changed. In the act of 1660, the postage on letters delivered in Scotland had
The rates within Scotland were lower than those within England and Ireland. Scotland had a 2d. rate for distances not exceeding fifty miles. England had no rate under 3d., except for the Penny Post. Ireland, too, had a 2d. rate for distances not exceeding forty miles, but for distances from forty to eighty miles and over, the rate for Irish letters was 4d., while in England the rate was only 3d. for distances not exceeding eighty miles. The distances which letters travelled within Scotland were shorter than in England and Ireland. As a rule the different rates for the three countries varied with their wealth and consequent ability to pay, the least being required from poverty-stricken Scotland. The new rates as compared with the old were for a single letter: For England
Within Ireland
Within Scotland (Scotch Act, 1695)
The act of 1660 imposed rates on letters in Scotland from Berwick as a centre. By that act rates had been fixed for distances not exceeding 40 miles and for distances over forty miles from Berwick, being 2d. and 4d. for single letters for the respective distances, so that by the act of 1711, the Scotch rates were lower than they had been in 1660 and slightly higher than those of 1695. When forty miles was made the lowest distance according to which rates were levied, it was thought and intended that 2d., the rate for that distance, would pay for a single letter from Berwick to Edinburgh. As a matter of fact, the distance between the two places was fifty miles, so that the Scotch Act had estimated it better. In the rates as given above, an exception is made in the case of letters directed on board ship or brought by it. For such letters one penny was charged in addition to the rates already given. This extra penny was charged because the postmaster in the place where the ship first touched was required to pay the master of the vessel one penny for every letter received. Foreign letters collected or delivered at any place between London and the port of departure or arrival of the ship for which they were destined or by which they had come, must pay the same rate as if they had left or arrived in London. As far as foreign post rates were concerned they were all from 1d. to 3d. higher than they had been by the act of 1660. The lowest foreign rate for a single letter, 10d., was paid between London and France, and London and the Spanish Netherlands. To Germany and Northwestern Europe, through the Spanish Netherlands, the rate was 12d., to Italy or Sicily the same way 12d., postpaid to Antwerp, or 15d. via Lyons. The same rates held for letters passing through the United Provinces. To Spain or Portugal via the Spanish Netherlands or the United Provinces or France, postpaid to Bayonne, the rate was 18d. for a single letter, and the same price held when letters were conveyed directly by sailing packets. By the same act of 1711 rates were for the first time established between England and her colonies and within the colonies themselves. The postage for a single letter from London to any of the West India Islands was 18d., to New York 12d., and the same from those places to London. Between the West Indies and New York There had always been trouble in collecting the rates on bye and cross post letters. These letters did not pass through London and hence the officials at the General Post Office had no check on the money due. By a clause in the act, the postmasters were ordered under a penalty to account for the receipts from all these letters. The postage on letters which did not pass to, through, or from London was fixed according to the inland charges, varying with the distances travelled. Finally, the postage on all inland letters was to be paid on delivery unless the sender wished to pay in advance, or in the case of the Penny Post, or unless such letters should be directed on board any ship or vessel or to any person in the army. From the receipts from postage, £700 a week was to be paid into the Exchequer for the purpose of carrying on the war. The Accountant-General was to keep account of all money raised, the receipts themselves going directly to the Receiver-General and being paid into the Exchequer by him. One third of the surplus over and above the weekly payment of £700 and £111,461 (the amount of the gross receipts of the duties arising by virtue of the act of 1660) were to be disposed of by Parliament. In making this provision, Joyce thinks that the Chancellor of the Exchequer confused gross and net product. The act of 1711 in prescribing the rate of postage for the carriage of "every single letter or piece of paper" enacted that a "double letter should pay twice that rate." The merchants contended that a double letter was composed of two sheets of paper if they weighed less than an ounce and their reasoning was logical. They argued from this that a letter enclosing a pattern or patterns, if it weighed less than one ounce, should pay only as a single letter. Actions were brought against the postmasters by the merchants for charging more than they considered was warranted and the merchants won every case. The lawyers also threatened legal proceedings for the charge of writs when enclosed in letters. The Postmasters-General hastened to Parliament for relief. The merchants heard of this, and petitions were sent to the House of Commons from "clothiers, dealers in cloth, silk, and other manufactured goods," asking that when samples were enclosed in a single letter the rate should remain the same provided that such letter and sample did not exceed half an ounce in weight. A postal act was passed in 1765, slightly changing the home, colonial, and foreign rates. The cession of territory in North America had made necessary a more comprehensive scheme of postage rates there. The conclusion of the Seven Years' War had made it possible to offer a slight reduction in postage. In Great Britain the following rates were published for short distances for a single letter:—
The rates for all other distances remained unchanged. A stage, as a rule, varied from ten to twelve miles in length, so that every post town in England could now boast a modified form of penny postage, with the exception in most cases of delivery facilities. The changes in colonial rates were generally in the shape of substituting general for special rules. The rate from any part of the British American Dominions to any other part was fixed at 4d. for a single letter when conveyed by sea. The act of 1711 had given the postage from and to specially named places. This method had become inapplicable with the growth in population among the old and the increase in new possessions. The rate for a single letter from any chief post office in the British American Dominions to a distance not exceeding sixty miles, or for any distance not exceeding sixty miles from any post office from which letters did not pass through a chief post office, was placed at 4d., from sixty to 100 miles 6d., from 100 to 200 miles 8d., for each additional hundred miles 2d. The effect of this act was to continue the same rates for inland postage in British America, while rates were provided for distances over 100 miles. The postage between England and the American colonies remained at 12d. for a single letter. In the case of the West Indies, there was a decrease of 6d. A clause of the act provided that the postage on letters sent out of England might be demanded in advance. Postage rates were increased steadily from 1784 for twenty-eight years, culminating in the year 1812 with the highest rates that England has ever seen. Every available means to raise the revenue necessary to maintain her supremacy was resorted to, and the Post Office was compelled to bear its share of the burden. In 1784 another penny was added to the rates for single letters and additional rates for double and triple letters in proportion. In 1796 the rates for letters conveyed within England and Wales, Berwick, to and from Portugal, and to and from the British possessions in America, as established by the acts of 1711, 1765, and 1784, were repealed and the following substituted for a single letter:— Within England, Wales and Berwick.
The old system of reckoning by stages was thus abolished, probably on account of the uncertainty as to the length of any particular stage and the variations and changes which were being constantly made. This change was made for England and Wales only, and the old system of reckoning by stages was still retained in Scotland. Letters from and to the colonies had formerly paid no postage over the regular shilling rate for a single letter and proportionately for other letters. Now they were to pay the full inland rate in addition. A single letter from the West Indies would now pay the shilling packet rate plus the rate from Falmouth to London, 1s. 8d. in all. The same rates and the same rule held for letters to and from Portugal. A single letter from Lisbon had formerly paid 1s. 6d. on delivery in London. It would now pay 1s. 8d. This act was not to affect letters to and from non-commissioned officers, privates, and seamen while in active service, who were allowed When sailing packets were established between Weymouth and the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, the packet rates and the rates between the islands themselves were fixed at 2d. for a single letter. Permission was also given to establish postal routes in the islands, and to charge the same postage for the conveyance of letters as in England. The surplus was to go to the General Office and all postal laws then in force in England were to be deemed applicable to the two islands. By the same act which gave the Postmasters-General authority to forward letters by vessels other than the regular sailing packets, rates were fixed for the carriage of such letters. For every single letter brought into the kingdom by these vessels, 4d. was to be charged. The Postmasters-General might order such rates to be payable in advance or on delivery. This was in addition to the inland postage, and for every letter handed over to the Post Office, the captain was to receive 2d. The revenue arising from this act was payable to the Exchequer. In 1801 the Post Office was called upon again to make a further contribution to the Exchequer to help meet the interest on new loans. The following were the new rates for a single letter:— Within Great Britain by the General Post
By the act of 1796 a uniform rate of 8d. for a single letter had been paid for distances over 150 miles. The new act not only imposed extra rates for all distances over 150 miles but it decreased the distances above 30 miles for which the old postage would have paid. For instance, a 6d. rate had carried a single letter 100 miles, a 7d. rate 150 miles. They now carried only 80 and 120 miles respectively. On letters to and from places abroad, "not being within His Majesty's Dominions," an additional rate of 4d. for a single letter was imposed. In 1803, the following rates were imposed within Ireland for a single letter:—
The postage on letters arriving in Ireland for the distance travelled outside Ireland was ordered to be collected by the Irish Postmaster-General and forwarded to London. An additional penny was imposed upon Dublin Penny Post letters crossing the circular road around Dublin. In 1805, for the third time within ten years, the Exchequer fell back upon the Post Office for an increase of revenue estimated at £230,000. Still the demand was for more money to help replenish an exhausted treasury. An additional penny was added for the conveyance of a single letter more than twenty miles beyond the place where the letter was posted within Great Britain and between Great Britain and Ireland. For the conveyance of a single letter between Great Britain and any of the colonies or to any foreign country an
In 1810, an additional penny (Irish) was added to the rates then in force in Ireland, with the exception of the penny rate on the Dublin Penny Post Letters.
The rates of 1813 were lower for distances not exceeding forty miles, higher for distances over eighty miles. On the whole there was little change, but the later rates were probably more easily borne as they were lower for short distances.
In 1813 an additional half-penny was demanded on all Scotch letters "because the mail coaches now paid toll in that country." So at least a correspondent to the Times says (London Times, 1813, June 21, p. 3). In 1814 the postage on a single letter brought into the kingdom By the Ship Letter Act of 1814, no letters were to be sent by private ships except such as had been brought to the Post Office to be charged. The directors of the East India Company had protested against this section of the act. It is true that they were allowed to send and receive letters by the ships of their own company, but in India there was a small army of officials in their service whose letters had hitherto gone free. For that matter it had been the custom for the company to carry for nothing all letters and papers which were placed in the letter box at the East India House. By an act passed in 1827 it was provided that henceforth all rates for letters conveyed within Ireland should be collected in British currency. The rates themselves and the distances remained the same as had been provided by the act of 1814. The postage collected on letters between the two kingdoms was henceforth to be retained in the country where it was collected. The rates for letters passing between the two kingdoms were assimilated with the rates prescribed for Great Britain by the act of 1812. In addition to the land rates, 2d. was required for the sea passage to and from Holyhead and Milford and to this 2d. more was added for the use of the In 1836, England and France signed a postal treaty by which the rates on letters between the United Kingdom and France or between any other country and the United Kingdom through France were materially reduced. In 1837, an act of Parliament was passed, consolidating previous acts for the regulation of postage rates within Great Britain and Ireland, between Great Britain and Ireland, and between the United Kingdom and the colonies and foreign countries. The rates within Great Britain remained the same as those established by the act of 1812, including the additional half penny on letters conveyed by mail coaches in Scotland. In Ireland the rates existing since 1814 still held and between Great Britain and Ireland the rates established by 7 and 8 Geo. IV, c. 21. The rates for letters between the United Kingdom and foreign countries through France and those conveyed directly between the United Kingdom and France remained the same as had been agreed upon by the Treaty of 1836. Some of the more important of the other rates were as follows:— To Italy, Sicily, Venetian Lombardy, Malta, the Ionian Islands, Greece, Turkey, the Levant, the Archipelago, Syria, and Egypt through Belgium, Holland, or Germany, 20d. for a single letter. Between the United Kingdom and Portugal, 19d. for a single letter.
Letters between the United Kingdom and Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, and Norway were charged in addition the same postage as if they had been sent from or to London. Letters from and to France paid no additional postage. All letters to and from non-commissioned officers, privates and seamen while in actual service were still carried for one penny each, payable in advance, but letters sent by them from Ceylon, the East Indies, Mauritius, and the Cape were charged an additional 2d. payable by the receiver. After the transference of the packet boats to the Admiralty in 1837, the Postmaster-General was authorized to charge regular packet rates for the conveyance of letters by such ships as he had contracted with for such conveyance. He might also forward letters by any ships and collect the following rates for each single letter:—
The end of high postage rates was now at hand. In 1839, the Treasury was empowered to change the rating according to the weight of the letter or package, On every letter or package, etc.—
For every ounce above four ounces, two additional rates of postage, and for every fraction of an ounce above four ounces as for one additional ounce. No letter or package exceeding one pound in weight was to be sent through the Post Office except petitions and addresses to the Queen, or to either House of Parliament, or in such cases as the Treasury Lords might order by warrant. On all letters not exceeding a half-ounce in weight transmitted by the Post between places in the United Kingdom (not being letters sent to or from places beyond the seas, or posted in any post town to be delivered within that town) there was charged a uniform rate of one penny. For all letters exceeding a half-ounce in weight, additional rates were charged according to the foregoing scheme, each additional rate for letters exceeding one ounce in weight being fixed at 2d. The rates for colonial letters were also adjusted according to weight as follows: Between any place in the United Kingdom and any port in the colonies and India (except when passing through France) for a letter not exceeding half an ounce in weight, 1s. Between any of the colonies through the United Kingdom, 2s. If such letters exceeded half an ounce in weight, they were charged additional rates according to the table already given, the rate for a letter not exceeding half an ounce being taken as the basis. The rates for letters to and from foreign countries were much the same as they had been before the passage of this act, except that instead of the initial charge being made for a single letter, it was now reckoned for a letter not exceeding half an ounce in weight. The rates for letters to and from France were graded according to the distance they were carried in England, the lowest rate for a letter not more than half an ounce in weight being 3d. to Dover or the port of arrival, the highest rate being 10d. to any place distant more than fifty miles from Dover. The franking privilege may reasonably be considered in connection with the history of postal rates, nor should its effect in reducing the revenue of the Post Office be neglected. The Council of State gave orders in 1652 that all public packets, letters of members of Parliament, of the Council, of officers in the public service, and of any persons acting in a public capacity should be carried free. This is the first record that we have concerning the free carriage of members' letters, a privilege which later gave so much trouble and was so much abused. We learn from Hicks' letters that it was customary for clerks in the Post Office at London to send gazettes to their correspondents in the country free of charge. These gazettes or news letters were supplied by the Treasury and, as 2d. or 3d. apiece was paid for them by the recipients, the privilege was greatly esteemed. The abuses of the privilege of franking were very pronounced during the eighteenth century. The system of patronage which the members of Parliament then exercised made them reluctant to offend any of their constituents, who might entrench upon their peculiar privileges. Members' names were forged to letters and they made no complaint. Letters from the country were sent to them to be re-addressed under their own signatures. The Postmasters-General admonished them more than once, but, as a rule, the members disclaimed all knowledge of abuses. Men were so bold as to order letters to be sent under a member's name to coffee-houses, where they presented themselves and demanded the letters so addressed. In 1715, on receiving renewed complaints from the Postmasters-General, it was ordered by the House that henceforth no member should frank a letter unless the address were written entirely in his own hand. This was expected to prevent members from franking letters sent to them by friends. It was also ordered that no letter addressed to a member should pass free unless such member was actually residing at the place to which the letter was addressed. In the third place, no member was to frank a newspaper unless it was entirely in print. This was to prevent the franking of long written communications passing as newspapers, for the members of Parliament in sending and receiving letters free were restricted to such as did not exceed two ounces in weight, but they were not so restricted in the case of newspapers.
Under the charges of management is included the charge for carrying members' letters as reckoned proportionately to the charge for the letters which paid, together with the actual charge for the pay letters. The net produce during the three months' session was £3006, during the nine months' session only £753. In 1734 the old orders about the maximum weight of two ounces and the requirement for the whole superscription to be in the member's own writing were repeated in a royal proclamation. In addition it was ordered that any letters sent under cover to any member of Parliament or high official of state, to be forwarded by him, should be sent to the General Post Office to be taxed. In 1735, the House of Commons instituted an enquiry into the whole question of franking and summoned various Post Office officials before them to give evidence. An estimate was laid before them of the amount lost each year by carrying franked letters. This estimate was obtained by weighing the franked letters at intervals during the session of Parliament, and comparing their weight with the weight of the letters which paid postage. As the total revenue from the latter was known, the amount which was lost on the former was guessed. The House expressed very little confidence in the estimated amounts, and certainly it was a rough way of attaining the object aimed at, but perhaps they were prejudiced from the strength of the case against them.
The system of ascertaining forged franks and of discovering enclosures was as follows: a Supervisor of the Franks charged all letters, franked by a member's name, coming from any place, when he knew that the member was not there. Very often by holding them in front of a candle, he could see enclosures inside directed to other people. If he was in doubt he generally charged the letter, for if it should pay, all well and good, and if he had made a mistake, the amount was refunded to the member. The Supervisor had noticed that the number of franked letters had increased with every session of Parliament, and some of the ex-members also attempted to frank letters. The evidence of the Supervisor, especially his description of the manner in which he attempted to discover enclosures, was exceedingly distasteful to the House. The members themselves were to blame for many of the abuses attendant upon the system, and yet they contended that they were the unwilling victims of others. A resolution was adopted that it was an infringement upon the privileges of the knights, citizens, and burgesses chosen to represent the people of Great Britain in Parliament, for any postmaster, his deputies or agents to open or look into any letter addressed to or signed by a member of Parliament, unless empowered so to do by a warrant issued by one of the Secretaries of State. In addition no postmaster or his deputies should delay or detain any letter directed to or by any member unless there should be good reason to suppose that the frank was a counterfeit. The restrictions adopted to curtail the abuse of the franking privilege had but little effect. A regular business sprang up for selling counterfeit franks. The House of Lords ordered one person accused of selling them to come before the bar of the House for examination, but he failed to present himself. The revenue from the Post Office was surrendered by the Crown at the beginning of George the Third's reign in exchange for a Civil List from the Aggregate Fund as it was then called. The year following the passing of this act, the House of Commons called for returns relating to the franking system. Besides the members of Parliament, the ministers, and the Post Office officials, to whom the franking privilege had been granted by the King's warrant and by the late act, almost all who were in any way connected with the Government claimed the right to send or receive letters free, even to the Deputy Serjeant-at-Arms. The amount which newspapers would have paid if there had been no franking privilege was first given for the week ending March 13, 1764.
These amounts were obtained by weighing the newspapers and, as this was the manner in which they would have been rated, the results may be considered as fairly correct. The idea being to estimate the loss from members' and states' franks only, the franking by Post Office clerks does not enter into the following calculation. It was judged from the figures given above that the Post Office carried free every year enough newspapers franked by members and state officials to produce £40,000 if they had been taxed at the ordinary rates. Returns were also submitted, showing the gross amount of the inland postage for Great Britain and Ireland, including the amount which the franked letters and papers would have paid if they had all been charged, the actual gross product and the difference between In Ireland, Parliament met as a rule only during the even years or if it met every year, the sessions in the odd years were very short. For the five even years from 1753 to 1762, the expenses averaged for each year £3306 over the receipts, while during the five odd years, the receipts were greater than the expenditures by a yearly average of £2249. These general results held good for every individual odd or even year for the period for which returns were given. Attempts continued to be made by members of the House of Commons to diminish the abuses arising from franking. There had been some misunderstanding as to whether they were entitled to have ship's letters delivered free to them. Of course they were exempt from the inland postage on such letters, but for every letter brought into the country by vessels other than packets, the master was paid one penny and this penny was collected from the person to whom the letter was delivered. The members finally agreed to pay the extra penny. Acts were now introduced to enable the Commander-in-Chief, It was enacted in 1784 that a member must write on his free letters not only his name and address but also the name of the post town from which they were to be sent and the day of the month and the year when they were posted. In 1795, the members of Parliament made another attempt to limit their own as well as the free writing proclivities of others. The maximum weight of a free letter to or from a member was lowered from two ounces to one. No letter directed by a member should go free unless the member so directing it should be within twenty miles of the place where it was posted either on the day on which it was posted or the day before. No member should send more than ten or receive more than fifteen free letters a day. Votes and proceedings in Parliament when addressed to or by members of Parliament were exempted from the provisions of this Act. The restrictions upon the franking privilege enjoyed by members of Parliament were re-enacted in 1802 with some additions. The number of free letters which a member might receive and send in one day having been limited to twenty-five, it was decided that these twenty-five so excepted from the payment of postage should be those on which the charges were the highest, provided that none of them exceeded an ounce in weight. The high officials of state, the clerks of Parliament, certain clerks of the Commons and Lords, the Treasurer and Paymaster of the Navy, the Lord Chancellor, certain officials in Ireland, and two persons appointed by the Postmaster-General of Ireland were allowed to send letters free. From 1806 to 1819 there was a large extension of the franking privilege to various officials. During that time sixteen statutes and parts of statutes were enacted in behalf of various persons from the Lord High Chancellor to the Controller of the Barrack's Department and the Commissioners of the parliamentary grant for building churches. Sir Robert Buxton, a member of Parliament, thought that it would be well for his fellow members to give up their privilege in order to help the finances of the country. Windham disagreed on the ground that it kept up communications between a member and his constituents and encouraged literary correspondence which would otherwise decline. Pitt justified it, in that it enabled members to carry on the important business of their constituents and did not result in much loss to the state. It had always been customary to charge letter rates for the conveyance of newspapers to foreign countries and to the colonies. Members of Parliament, however, had the privilege of franking newspapers within the United Kingdom, the clerks of the Foreign Office franked them to foreign countries, and the Secretary of the Post Office franked them to the colonies. In 1825 it was enacted that members need no longer sign their names to newspapers franked by them, or give notice of the names of the places to which they intended to send them. During the following year, all the regulations concerning the conveyance of newspapers, votes, and proceedings in Parliament etc. were embodied in one act. Within the United Kingdom all newspapers which had paid the stamp duty were to go free except those which were sent through the Twopenny Post and delivered by it, The following additions and changes in the regulations for the carriage of newspapers were made in 1837. One penny was to be paid for their conveyance by private vessels between different parts of the United Kingdom. Between the colonies and foreign countries through the United Kingdom, newspapers should go free if conveyed by the packets and should pay a penny each if conveyed by private vessels. Parliamentary proceedings conveyed between the colonies and the United Kingdom, if sent by packet boats and not exceeding one ounce in weight, were charged 1½d. each. When in excess of one ounce they paid 1½d. for each additional ounce. Pamphlets, magazines and other periodical publications for the colonies, if not exceeding six ounces in weight, paid 12d. when carried by the packets. For every additional ounce, 3d. was charged. Bankers' re-issuable notes were carried at one quarter the regular postage. Franking and the privilege of sending and receiving letters free from postage did not at any time extend to letters liable to foreign postage except in the case of public despatches to and from the Secretaries of State and British Ambassadors. Officials of both Houses of Parliament were in the second class. They were subject to the same restrictions as the first class, except that the number of their letters was not limited and each letter might weigh two ounces. The third class was composed of members of the Treasury Department and the Postmaster-General and his secretaries. Their franking privilege was unlimited as to the weight and number of letters nor were they required to insert the name of the post town or the date. The fourth class, composed of heads of departments, might send and receive letters with no limit as to number or weight. The fifth class, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and the Irish Surveyors, had unlimited franking rights within Ireland. All the letters of these five classes were subject to the following restrictions with the exception of the third class. The whole superscription of the letters sent must be in the hand of the privileged person, with his name and the name of the post town from which the letters were sent together with the date, and on that date or the day before, the writer must be within twenty miles of the place where the letters were posted. The other five classes were made up of subordinate members of departments, clerks, secretaries etc. when writing or receiving letters on official business. Every such letter had to be superscribed with the name of the office and the seal and name of the writer. It appeared from a report of a committee appointed to investigate postal affairs that the total number of franks had increased from 3,039,000 in 1810 to 4,142,000 in 1820; 4,792,000 in 1830 and 5,270,000 in 1837. Of these, members of the two Houses were responsible for 2,028,000; 2,726,000; 2,814,000 and 3,084,000 at the above dates respectively. No further reduction in inland postage rates was adopted until the net revenue of the Post Office had pretty well recovered from the blow received by the adoption of penny postage. With an increase in the number of valuable articles carried by post and better arrangements for their safe keeping, it was found possible to reduce the registration fee from 11d. to 6d., then to 4d. An inland parcel post was not established in England until 1883. An initial rate of 3d. was imposed for the first pound, increasing by increments of 3d. to 1s. for the seventh pound. Later the maximum weight was increased to 11 pounds, the maximum charge to 1s. 6d. In 1905 a further reduction followed on parcels weighing more than four pounds. The use of postcards was first permitted in England in 1870, a charge of a halfpenny a dozen being made in addition to the stamp. In 1875 this additional charge was increased to a penny a dozen for thin cards, 2d. for stout cards. In 1899 these prices were reduced to a penny for ten stout cards, a halfpenny for ten thin ones, and the latter began rapidly to displace the former. Private post cards were first allowed to pass through the post in 1894 for a halfpenny each, and two years later the charge on unpaid inland post cards was reduced from 2d. to a penny. In 1884 the scale of postage applicable to inland letters between two and twelve ounces in weight was continued without limit. The resulting rates were as follows: for the first ounce, one penny; The decrease in postage for inland matter was accompanied by lower rates for colonial and foreign letters. Although the proposal of the Marquis of Clanricarde to establish a definite shilling In 1863 arrangements were made with the principal European countries for a marked reduction in letter postage rates. With France a rate of 8d. or 10d. for a quarter of an ounce, according to the country in which the postage was paid, had existed. This was reduced to 4d. payable in either country. With Italy and Spain the existing rates of 1s. 1d. and 10d. respectively for a quarter of an ounce were reduced to 6d. The Belgian sixpenny half-ounce rate was made 4d., and with the German Postal Union the rate was reduced from 8d. to 6d. for a half-ounce letter. In general these were prepaid rates. Shortly after acquiring the money order business from the managing proprietors, the Post Office reduced the rates of commission to 3d. for orders not exceeding £2 in value, and 6d. for orders above £2 but not over £5, the latter sum being at that time the maximum. In 1862 the issue of orders for larger sums was allowed at the following rates: 9d. when not in excess of £7, and 12d. between
These rates were in their turn altered as follows on February 1, 1897:—
Upon the representation of the Friendly Societies, which send a good many small orders, these rates were changed in May of the same year to the following:
And finally in 1903 the maximum amount of a money order was raised from £10 to £40 and the following rates established:
In addition to the reductions in rates which have been outlined above, other changes have been made which have resulted in certain cases in a saving to the transmitter of a money order. The charge for correcting or altering the name of the remitter or payee of an inland order has been reduced to the fixed sum of a penny. The fee payable for stopping payment of an inland order was fixed at 4d., and this was made to cover the issue of a new order if the request was made at the time of stopping payment. A penny stamp need no longer be affixed to a money order when payment is deferred and payment may be deferred for any period not exceeding ten days. The issue of telegraph money orders, commenced in 1889 as an experiment, was in 1892 extended to all money order offices which were also telegraph offices. The limit imposed was £10, the rates being
There was an additional charge of at least 9d. for the official telegram, authorizing payment, which was sent in duplicate. When several orders were sent at the same time and the total amount During the Crimean War, the Army Post Office was authorized to issue money orders at inland rates and the system was extended to Gibraltar and Malta. In 1858 a proposition advanced by Canada for the interchange of money orders was favourably received by the Home Government, and in the following year provision was made for their issue between the United Kingdom and Canada at four times the inland rates, to a limit of £5. In 1862 the system was extended to all the colonies, the rates being the same as those already agreed upon with Canada except in the case of Gibraltar and Malta where they were three times the inland rates, and the maximum was increased to £10. In 1868 a money order convention was concluded with Switzerland, the rates being the same as those for inland orders, and in 1869 a similar agreement was made with Belgium, but in 1871 the rates for both countries were increased to three times the inland rates upon the same terms as those prevailing with other parts of Europe. In 1880 colonial rates were reduced to the same level, and in 1883 the following changes were adopted:
These were superseded in 1896 by the following rates:—
By 1903 most foreign countries and some of the colonies had agreed to a further reduction of rates and to a £40 limit. In 1905 There is no record of the yearly expenses of the Government for the maintenance of the posts until the accession of James I. Until 1626 Our ideas of the financial operations of the Post Office from 1635 to 1711 are somewhat clearer than during the preceding period. We know that Witherings' aim was to make the system self-supporting. It had probably not entered into his head that it might ever be anything more. After the sequestration of the position of Postmaster-General to Burlamachi, he was called upon to render an account of the financial proceedings of the Post Office during the short period that he was in charge. After James II took his involuntary departure from England, his pecuniary interest in the Post Office ceased. In 1690, an act of Parliament was passed, making the receipts from the Post Office payable into the Exchequer. They were to be used among other things to pay the interest on £250,000 borrowed to carry on the war. During the eighteenth century the postal revenue still continued to be burdened with the pensions of favourites, deserving and undeserving. Queen Anne asked Parliament to settle £5000 a year upon the Duke of Marlborough and his heirs. The House of Commons replied that they very much regretted that they could not do Our knowledge of the financial operations of the Post Office during the eighteenth century is much more extensive than during the seventeenth, owing to the reports made by the Post Office officials to the Parliamentary committees, appointed to enquire into abuses. The reports are all signed by the Accountant-General or his deputy, and are therefore as trustworthy as anything which can be obtained. They show that during the first half of the century, or more explicitly from 1717 to 1754, there was a very small annual increase in gross product, with an actual decrease in net product, and of course an increase in expenditure. In round numbers the average yearly gross product for the years 1725-29 was £179,000, the net product for the same period being £98,000 and the expenses of management £81,000. For the five years from 1750 to 1754, the average annual gross product was £207,000, net product £97,000, and expenses £110,000. It is not surprising that there was no increase worthy of the name in the gross product, for the period under consideration was a time of stagnation, an intermediate stage just before the dawn of the industrial revolution. The actual decrease in net product or, what amounts to the same thing, the increase in expenses of management, is due largely to the abuse of the franking privilege, the large amounts received in fees and emoluments, the extraordinary way in which the packet service was mismanaged, and the losses and increased expense due to war. Enough has been said about all but the last of these causes. The Post Office suffered most during war from increased expenses and direct losses in connection with the sailing packets. The placing of these upon a war footing involved considerable increased cost. From 1755 to the end of the century there is a marked rise both in gross and net receipts and a comparative diminution in expenses. The gross average annual product from 1755 to 1759 was £228,000, from 1790 to 1794 it was £602,000. For the five years from 1755 to 1759 the average yearly net product was £81,000, from 1790 to 1794 it was £375,000, while expenses had risen for the same periods only from £147,000 to £227,000. The following table shows the average yearly increase or decrease in gross product, expenses, and net products for the six five-year periods from 1765 to 1794. The increases or decreases are given in the form of percentages, each five-year period being compared with the preceding period.
The net product from both the Scotch and Irish Posts was remitted to England. These receipts did not amount to much as compared with those from the English Post. Earl Temple, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in writing to Grenville in 1784, said that the The time had long since passed when the London-Dover road was the most important in the kingdom and when the receipts from foreign exceeded those from inland letters. As late as 1653, when contracts were called for from those wishing to farm the posts, the amount offered in one instance was almost as great for the foreign as for the inland post. The average annual gross product from the foreign post for the period 1785-89 was £61,431, the expenses £32,169 and the net product £29,262. For the period from 1790 to 1794 there was a small increase to £65,497 for gross product, £34,277 for expenses, and £31,200 for net product. The receipts from the London Penny Post were never an important factor in postal finance but it had always paid for itself and given a reasonable surplus. Its importance was due more to its social value in affording a cheaper letter rate and a speedier postal service than the General Post. The average yearly gross product from 1785-94 was £10,508, expenses £5177, and net product £5331. After Johnson had improved it so much, it produced a yearly average gross product from 1795 to 1797 of £26,283. Expenses averaged £18,960 and net product £7323. In the seventeenth century the receipts from bye and cross post letters amounted to very little. So little was expected from them that no provision was made for checking the postage on them. It was taken for granted that all letters would pass to, from, or through London. In 1720 they brought in only £3700. Allen had The financial history of the Post Office from the beginning of the nineteenth century to 1838 is a rather depressing record. The annual gross receipts from Scotland had increased from £117,108 during the period 1800-04 to £204,481 during the period 1830-34, the annual net receipts for the same periods being £98,156 and £149,752. The relatively large increase in expenses from £18,952 to £54,729 had been due largely to the payment of mail coach tolls after 1814, amounting to something under £20,000 a year. The increases in rates in 1801, 1805, and 1812 had not produced the desired and expected results. The increase in 1801 had been estimated to produce £150,000 but results showed that this estimate was too large by £35,000. In 1805, the additional penny had resulted in an increase of only £136,000, inclusive of any natural increase of revenue, although it had been estimated to produce £230,000. The third increase in rates in 1812 proved even less productive. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that he expected it to produce £200,000. As a matter of fact the revenue increased only £77,892 in amount. The fact of the matter was that rates were already so high that an increase only led to greater efforts to evade the payment of postage. As a system of taxation the Post Office had become rigid. It could yield no more with postage as high as it had been forced by the acts of 1801 and 1805. But, considered primarily as a taxing medium, and it had been considered as such for 200 years, it could hardly be called a failure. We flatter ourselves that our idea of the Post Office is broader in its scope and more utilitarian in its object but we have the good fortune to live several generations after 1840. What England demanded was revenue and still more revenue, and a postal system which could produce £70 net for every £100 collected had some excuse for its existence. Rowland Hill has pointed out that from 1815 to 1835 the population had increased from 19,552,000 to 25,605,000 while the net revenue from the Post Office had remained practically stationary. He said nothing, however, about the industrial depression of the country during that period nor of the political and economic crisis through which England was passing. He referred to the great increase in the postal revenue of the United States during the same period; on the one hand, a nation with immense natural resources and a population doubling itself every generation, and on the other hand, a people inhabiting two small islands, making heroic efforts to recover from a most burdensome war. With the introduction of penny postage the gross revenue of the Post Office fell from £2,390,763 in 1840 to £1,359,466 in 1841, and did not fully recover from the decreased postage rates for twelve years. 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