Parnell.[70] Between the years 1815 and 1835 the duty on stage-coaches
had increased from [L]218,000 to nearly [L]500,000 a year. During the same
period the revenue of the Post Office, both gross and net, had not
increased at all--in point of fact, it had slightly decreased. If it had
kept pace with the increase of population, the annual net revenue would
have increased by half a million. If it had increased in the same
proportion as the duty on stage-coaches, the revenue of 1835 would have
exceeded that of 1815 by no less than [L]2,000,000. These facts convinced
Sir Rowland Hill that a reduction of the rates of postage was urgently
necessary; and apart from financial considerations, the moral and
intellectual results which would follow a facilitation of intercourse
appealed powerfully to a reforming Radical.[71] Having arrived at the
conviction that the Post Office offered most scope for his zeal, he
found no lack of material to work upon. A Commission of Inquiry into the
Revenue Departments had reported on the Post Office in 1829. A
Commission of Inquiry on the Post Office had been sitting for some
years, and had made numerous voluminous reports. Sir Rowland Hill set to
work to make a careful study of the information contained in these
reports, and as the result of this study evolved a complete plan for the
reform and reorganization of the whole Post Office system, a plan
involving the transformation both of the theory of Post Office finance,
and of the methods of practical working.[72]
His inquiries led him to examine the cost of the Post Office service as
a whole, and its relation to the work performed by the Post Office in
respect of individual letters, or, as he termed it, "the natural cost of
conveying a letter."[73] The investigations and calculations made in
this connection elucidated a fact of first importance, viz. that the
cost of the conveyance of a letter from one town to another was
exceedingly small, being on the average no more than nine-hundredths of
a penny--in the case of a mail from London to Edinburgh the cost of
conveyance was no more than one-thirty-sixth of a penny. This fact was
developed. It was shown that not only was the cost for conveyance for
the average of distance exceedingly small, but that it did not vary with
the distance. The variation was rather in the inverse proportion to the
number of letters enclosed in a mail.[74] Thus, while the average cost
of the conveyance of a letter from London to Edinburgh was
one-thirty-sixth of a penny, the cost of the conveyance of a letter for
a shorter distance was often greater, owing to the small number of
letters included in the mail. On these facts rests the whole case for
uniformity of rate irrespective of distance:[75] and they are
sufficient to demonstrate that the principle is fundamentally sound.
The proposal for a uniform rate was the outstanding feature of the plan,
but there were others of importance. It was a chief merit that the plan
might be introduced without causing any serious diminution of net
revenue, and the object of the further proposals was so to modify and
simplify the working methods of the service as to enable the increased
traffic which a low uniform rate would inevitably bring into the post to
be dealt with without a proportionate increase in working expenses.
A vast increase in the number of letters must occur if the revenue was
to be maintained, and this increase was confidently anticipated. With
the existing rates there was a very large clandestine traffic in letters
outside the Post Office, and it was calculated that a low uniform rate
would effect the complete suppression of that traffic, and attract all
letters into the post. But in order to maintain the net revenue, it was
essential to simplify effectively the methods of working. This
simplification was to be secured by the introduction of the system of
prepayment, and the principle of charging by weight.
Covers and sheets of paper bearing the revenue stamp already impressed
were to be sold at all post offices. The postage label, which has become
so characteristic a feature of post office business throughout the
civilized world, was proposed as an expedient to meet a certain
exceptional case. If any person bringing a letter to the post should not
be able to write the address on the stamped cover in which the letter
was to be enclosed, Sir Rowland Hill suggested that "this difficulty
might be obviated by using a bit of paper just large enough to bear the
stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash, which the bringer
might, by applying a little moisture, attach to the back of the letter,
so as to avoid the necessity for redirecting it."[76]
Letters prepaid in either of these ways were to pass through the post as
franks,[77] i.e. without change or record. By this method a great
reduction in the work of the Post Office would be effected. Under the
existing system it was necessary to record and charge forward on the
postmasters all letters the postage of which was to be collected on
delivery, and these letters formed the vast majority. All such labour
would be dispensed with. The increase of the number of letters was to be
further encouraged by the provision of additional facilities, such as
the establishment of day mails and increased frequency of deliveries in
towns.[78]
It has sometimes been thought that Sir Rowland Hill's theory included
the proposition that the increase of the number of letters varied in
inverse proportion to the reduction of rate effected, that is to say,
that if the rate were reduced by one-half, the number of letters posted
would be doubled; if the rate were reduced by two-thirds, the number of
letters posted would increase threefold.[79] This is not the case. His
estimate was that with the reduction of postage in the United Kingdom to
the uniform rate of one penny, i.e. an average reduction of
seven-eighths (from about eightpence), an immediate fourfold increase in
the number of letters might be anticipated. This estimate was framed
with regard to the circumstances existing in the United Kingdom at the
time, and there is no other rule applicable to the relation between
reduction of postage and resultant increase of postal traffic than that
it is relative to the particular circumstances of time and place.
Especially, it may be said, where postage is already low, further
reduction is hardly likely to result in largely increased traffic.
In brief, Sir Rowland Hill calculated that by the adoption of his
proposals for the modification of methods of working, the letter
postage in the United Kingdom might be reduced to the uniform rate of
one penny irrespective of distance, without causing loss to the net
revenue of more than [L]300,000 a year.
The pamphlet, _Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability_,
in which the plan was embodied, was first issued privately in January
1837 for circulation in political and official circles, to which Sir
Rowland Hill had access, partly through the celebrity of his family on
account of their school system, but chiefly through his brother Matthew
Davenport Hill, then a member of Parliament. In February 1837 the author
was invited to give evidence before the Commissioners for Post Office
Inquiry.[80] The proposals were not, however, viewed favourably by the
Government, and were resolutely opposed by the Postmaster-General and
many of the high authorities of the Post Office.[81]
Finding it impossible to impress the official mind, Sir Rowland Hill
issued the pamphlet to the public,[82] and it met with immediate,
widespread, and influential support. The Press, Chambers of Commerce,
and other bodies actively supported propaganda for the adoption of the
scheme.[83] Public meetings in support of it were held in all parts of
the country, and numerous petitions in its favour were submitted to
Parliament. So strong was the public feeling that in November 1837 the
Government were constrained to appoint a Select Committee of the House
of Commons for the express purpose of considering Sir Rowland Hill's
proposals. This Committee took a vast amount of evidence. The
contentions of Sir Rowland Hill were in the main sustained by this
evidence, and the Committee recommended (but only by the casting vote of
its chairman) the adoption of a uniform rate. They were not, however,
satisfied that the net revenue would be maintained if the uniform rate
were made as low as one penny, and they therefore recommended the rate
of twopence.[84] The Committee reported in August, 1838, but no
immediate steps were taken by the Government to carry out their
recommendations. The condition of the national finances was not so
healthy as in 1837, when the proposals were first broached, and they did
not improve in the following years.[85] The doubt as to the financial
result of the scheme therefore made its early adoption in the normal
course unlikely. The reform was, however, warmly taken up by the
Radicals,[86] and in 1839 party exigencies enabled them to insist on the
introduction of uniform penny postage as the price of their support in
Parliament.[87]
On the 10th January 1840, therefore, the reform was introduced.[88] The
new rate was one penny for each of the first two half ounces, and
twopence for each additional ounce. The results were disappointing
financially. The reduction in net revenue in the first year was one
million pounds sterling (from [L]1,500,000 to [L]500,000), instead of
[L]300,000 as forecasted. The number of letters, also, was doubled only,
instead of quadrupled (in 1839, 82 millions, in 1840, 169 millions). But
the numbers continued to increase rapidly, in agreeable contrast to the
stagnation under the old system. By 1847 they had quadrupled; by 1860
they had reached 564 millions; and the expansion has since been
continuous.[89] The gross revenue of 1839 was equalled in 1850, and the
net revenue of 1839 was reached in 1863. It has since gone on
increasing. The plan was not an immediate financial success: neither was
it a complete financial failure, as sometimes alleged.[90] The recovery
of revenue was slow, but it was constant; and ultimately the plan has
abundantly justified itself as a financial arrangement.
The changes in the British letter rates since 1840 have not been
numerous or fundamental. The limit of weight for letters, viz. 16
ounces, fixed in 1840, was abolished in 1847. In 1865 the progression of
weight and charge above one ounce was made a penny the half-ounce. In
1871 the rates were reduced. Letters up to 1 ounce in weight became
transmissible at the penny rate; for the second ounce, and for every
succeeding 2 ounces up to 12 ounces, the rate was made 1/2d.; and for
letters weighing more than 12 ounces, 1d. the ounce, including the first
ounce. In 1885 the rate of 1/2d. for every 2 ounces after the second
ounce was continued without limit; and in 1897, on the occasion of the
Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, a further reduction of the rate for
heavier letters was made. The scale of 1d. for the first 4 ounces, and
1/2d. for each succeeding 2 ounces, was then introduced. This method of
effecting a reduction was dictated largely by a desire to simplify the
rates of postage. It admitted of the abolition of the Sample Post, and
of the Book Post (except as regards packets not exceeding 2 ounces in
weight), and thus removed a source of confusion and loss of time both to
the staff and the public.
In recent years postal traffic of all kinds has increased rapidly. The
growth in numbers is shown by the following table:--
-----------+-----------------------
| Total number of Postal
Year. | Packets dealt with in
| the United Kingdom.
-----------+-----------------------
1880-1 | 1,682,000,000
1890-1 | 2,623,988,000
1900-1 | 3,723,817,000
1905-6 | 4,686,182,000
1910-11 | 5,281,102,000
1913-14 | 5,920,821,000[91]
-----------+-----------------------
The ordinary letter, however, remains the characteristic of Post Office
business and the sheet-anchor of postal finance. The vast proportion in
point of numbers still consists of packets of small weight.[92] In
1913-14, of a total traffic of some six thousand million packets
(including parcels), nearly three thousand five hundred millions passed
at the letter rate of postage (less than 14 per cent. of which exceeded
1 ounce in weight), one thousand millions at the postcard rate, another
thousand millions at the 1/2d. packet rate (none exceeding 2 ounces in
weight). The average weight of the two hundred million newspapers was
just over 4 ounces, and of the hundred and thirty million parcels, some
2 to 3 pounds. Of the total traffic (including parcels), more than four
thousand millions, consisting in general of ordinary letters and
postcards, were under 1 ounce in weight; and of the remaining two
thousand millions (including parcels) only some five hundred millions
exceeded 4 ounces in weight.
The Post Office, in addition to its ordinary function of providing for
the transmission of letters and packets, undertakes a number of
subsidiary services. There are, of course, the telegraphs and
telephones, the money order, postal order, and Savings Bank business,
which have for many years been an integral part of the business of the
Post Office. In recent years the Post Office has also undertaken the
issue of certain local taxation licenses, and the payment of Old Age
Pensions and Army Pensions. Now it has undertaken the sale of War Loan
Stock, Exchequer Bonds, and War Savings Certificates. Apart from the
telegraphs, telephones, and Savings Bank, however, these services form
only a small part of the work of the Post Office. While the total cost
of the ordinary postal services (i.e. excluding telegraphs, telephones,
and Savings Bank) was in 1913-14 some [L]17,000,000, the cost of the
subsidiary services was only about a million.
The staff of officers has increased as follows:--
--------------+---------+---------+-----------
Year. | Male. | Female. | Total.
--------------+---------+---------+-----------
1880-1 | | | 80,000
1890-1 | 93,046 | 24,943 | 117,989
1900-1 | 137,807 | 35,377 | 173,184
1905-6 | 154,351 | 41,081 | 195,432
1910-11 | 166,073 | 46,741 | 212,814
1913-14 | 188,794 | 60,659 | 249,453[93]
--------------+---------+---------+-----------
Concurrently with the increase of the number of officers, the rate of
wages has been revised on several occasions, as the result of the
recommendations of Parliamentary and other Committees appointed to
consider the question of Post Office wages. The cost of the increases of
wages which have been granted as the result of these revisions,
calculated on the basis of the staff at the dates of the respective
revisions, without allowance for subsequent growth of force, is some
[L]3,674,950 per annum.[94] The increase of the number of officers has, of
course, increased the ultimate cost of each successive improvement in
pay and conditions of service.
The increased wages of the staff have naturally counterbalanced to some
extent the economies resulting from the large increase of business.
Since the first of these revisions, the Fawcett of 1881-2, the wages of
the staff have absorbed a larger percentage of the total revenue of the
postal services,[95] and the cost for staff per packet handled has
increased from .288d. in 1880-1 to .329d. in 1890-1, and .418d. in
1913-14.[96] During the same period the cost of conveyance of postal
packets has decreased from .131d. per packet other than a parcel in
1880-1, to .119d. in 1890-1, and .080d. in 1913-14.[97] The total cost
of dealing with a postal packet other than a parcel has in recent years
shown a small decrease. The cost in 1913-14 has been estimated at
.520d.[98]
The gross revenue of the postal services, i.e. excluding telegraphs and
telephones, has increased from [L]7,130,819 in 1880-1 to [L]9,851,078 in
1890-1, and [L]21,928,311 in 1913-14. The net revenue from postal services
has increased from [L]2,720,784 in 1880-1 to [L]3,163,989 in 1890-1, and
[L]6,642,067 in 1913-14. The expansion of net revenue has not kept pace
with the increase in the total number of packets passing by post. Since
1880 the total numbers have increased some 3-1/2-fold, and the net
revenue some 2-1/2-fold.[99] The relation between the gross revenue and
the total expenditure on the postal services, which in recent years has
not shown any large variation, fluctuates in the neighbourhood of 70 per
cent.[100]
NOTE.--On the 1st November 1915, in order to secure increased
revenue for war purposes, the inland letter rate was increased to
the following:--
For packets not exceeding 1 ounce in weight 1d.
For packets between 1 ounce and 2 ounces 2d.
For every succeeding 2 ounces 1/2d.
Under the existing abnormal circumstances it is difficult to form a
satisfactory estimate of the result of this increase. Numerous
contrary forces are in operation. The growth of the Army and the
dislocation of private business resulting from the war have had
important effects on the number of letters posted. Large numbers of
letters are exchanged with men in the Army, but, on the other hand,
all letters from troops on active service pass free of postage. It
has been estimated that in the first five months the new rates
yielded an increased revenue of nearly half a million.--See
Postmaster-General's statement, 3rd July 1916 (_Parl. Debates
(Commons_), vol. lxxxiii. cols. 1231-2).
* * * * *
LETTER POST IN CANADA
When Canada came into British hands after the capture of Quebec, no
postal arrangements existed in the province. The population numbered
only some 60,000, excluding the Indians, and with so small a number
spread over so vast a territory it was not to be expected that any Post
Office establishment of the ordinary type could be maintained.[101] Very
soon, however, the English merchants interested in the Canadian trade
urged upon the British Government the necessity for a regular service
from New York to Quebec, and in this they were supported by the Governor
of the province. The Government instructed the Deputy
Postmasters-General in America to take steps for the establishment of
the post, and they accordingly proceeded to Quebec. There they met a
young Scotsman, Hugh Finlay, who offered to conduct a regular post
between Quebec and Montreal, undertaking all risks, for a commission of
20 per cent, on all revenue collected on the post,[102] and, in
addition, a monopoly of licensing persons to provide horses and
conveyances for the use of travellers--the old monopoly which had
existed for so long in England as a source of emolument to the
postmasters. Finlay contracted for the conveyance of the mail with a
number of men, to whom he made over the exclusive right of furnishing
travellers on the route. In addition to this privilege, these men, who
were styled _ma[^i]tres de poste_, were remunerated by payment at the rate
of 6d. a league (2d. a mile) for providing horses and carriages for the
couriers. Between Quebec and Montreal, a distance of 180 miles, there
were twenty-seven _ma[^i]tres de poste_ and two post offices, viz., Three
Rivers and Berthier. On the whole route, which was not of the easiest,
there was not a single inn; there were six ferries to cross, that at
Three Rivers being three miles wide, and one near Montreal nearly
three-quarters of a mile. There was a service twice a week in each
direction, and the journey occupied about forty hours, the courier who
left Quebec at five o'clock on Monday afternoon arriving at Montreal on
Wednesday morning, and the courier leaving Montreal on Thursday evening
reaching Quebec on Saturday morning.
The statutory authority for the establishment of posts in Canada, as in
other parts of North America, was section 4 of the Act of the 9th of
Anne. This Act, however, failed to prescribe for North America rates of
postage for letters passing greater distances than 100 miles. Hence, for
the post from Quebec to Montreal no legal rate was ascertainable. The
rate actually charged was 8d. for a single letter, and so in proportion
for double, treble, and ounce letters, which was not an excessive
charge, seeing that the legal charge for distances up to 100 miles was
6d. for a single letter. It proved sufficient, however; the whole scheme
was completely successful and greatly appreciated by the colonists. To
link this local post with the service from England, the
Postmasters-General at New York arranged a connecting post to run
monthly in connection with the arrival and departure of the English
packets. They realized that the number of letters likely to be carried
by such a post would be small and would not yield a revenue nearly equal
to the expenses, the more so as, in any case, a comparatively high rate
of postage would be payable on account of the great distance, and in
recommending its establishment, they suggested moderate rates of
charge.[103]
The Act of 1765 provided reduced rates of postage for North America.
"The vast accession of territory gained by the late Treaty of Peace,"
and the establishment of new posts in America, for which rates of
postage could not be ascertained under the existing law,[104] made a
new Act necessary, and the rates prescribed in that Act were fixed under
the enlightened principle that moderate rates might yield increased
revenue.[105] The rate which would apply to Canada, for the greatest
distances, was fixed at 8d. for a single letter for not more than 200
miles, and 2d. for each 100 miles beyond 200 miles--double letters
double rates, treble letters treble rates, ounce letter four times the
single rate, in the usual way.
In January 1774 Finlay was appointed joint "Deputy-General for the
Northern District of America" in the room of Dr. Franklin. He was
allowed to retain, for the time being, the benefits of the Post Office
at Quebec, which, in the words of the letter of appointment, he had been
"so instrumental in bringing to a degree of perfection."[106] The
disturbances of 1775 in the coast colonies soon affected the post to
Canada. In September of that year, the prospect of getting mails through
from Canada to New York was so slight that Finlay was anticipating the
suspension of all communication with the rest of the world during the
whole of the winter, unless letters could be conveyed to Halifax. The
couriers were frequently held up by armed men and robbed, and by
November matters had become so serious that all postal arrangements in
the province were stayed. Quebec was besieged throughout the winter and
spring. After its relief Finlay tried to set up the posts again, but
unsuccessfully, as the Governor refused to re-establish the monopoly of
the _ma[^i]tres de poste_, on the ground that travellers in Canada were
very well accommodated in horses and conveyances and did not desire its
re-establishment. Without it Finlay was unable to maintain a service,
and no posts existed during the remaining period of the war.
After peace had been restored, Finlay represented the matter so strongly
that the monopoly was re-established. The posts were again set up, and
Finlay was appointed Deputy Postmaster-General of Canada, Nova Scotia,
and New Brunswick. The mails for Canada were still sent by way of New
York, as before the war, but for military reasons it was important that
a mail route should be established from Halifax, the military
headquarters, to run altogether within British territory. In 1787 a
fortnightly post (monthly in winter) was accordingly established between
Quebec and Halifax.[107] The mail went by River du Loup, near the Grand
Portage, where the courier from Quebec handed over his mail to the
courier from Fredericton; by the Madawaska to the Grand Falls; thence by
boat to Fredericton. A fresh courier went by boat from Fredericton to
the mouth of the St. John's River. Here the mail was transferred to a
sloop of about 34 tons burthen for conveyance across the Bay of Fundy to
Digby, whence the route lay by Annapolis. The total distance from Quebec
to Halifax was 633 miles, and the time required for the trip varied from
twenty-one to thirty-one days.
A mail route from Montreal into Upper Canada was also established, but
this was rather a military post, intended to serve the military stations
and frontier settlements. The mail was despatched only once a year and
was, in consequence, known as the "yearly express." The route followed
was by the St. Lawrence from Montreal to Matilda, Augusta, and Kingston;
across Lake Ontario to Niagara; thence to Detroit Fort, at the base of
Lake St. Clair, and across Lake Huron to Michilimackinac, at the head of
Lakes Huron and Michigan. After continuing some six years this post was
curtailed and went no farther than Niagara.[108]