Our own partial reform in postage proves this. In a report of the
committee on post-offices and post-roads, made to the House of
Representatives, May 15, 1844, it is said,
“Events are in progress of fatal tendency to the Post-office Department,
and its decay has commenced. Unless arrested by vigorous legislation, it
must soon cease to be a self-sustaining institution, and either be cast on
the treasury for support, or suffered to decline from year to year, till
the system has become incompetent and useless. The last annual report of
the Postmaster-General shows that, notwithstanding the heavy retrenchments
he had made, the expenditures of the department, for the year ending June
30th, 1843, exceeded its income by the sum of $78,788. The decline of its
revenue during that year was $250,321; and the investigations made into
the operations of the current year, indicate a further and an increasing
decline, at the rate of about $300,000 a year. Why this loss of revenue,
when the general business and prosperity of the country is reviving, and
its correspondence is on the increase?”
The report of the Senate Committee at the same session, made Feb. 22,
1844, says that “the cause of this great falling off, in a season of
reviving prosperity in the trade, business and general prosperity of the
country, cannot be regarded as transient, but, on the contrary, is shown
to be deep and corroding. The cause is the dissatisfaction felt generally
through the country, but most strongly in the densely peopled regions to
with the rates of postage now established by law, and the frequent resort
to various means of evading its payment.”
The result was the passage of the act, now in force, by which the postage
was reduced one half, to begin on the first day of July, 1845. The last
annual report of the Postmaster-General gives the result. He says:
“It is gratifying to find that, within so short a period after the great
reduction of the rates of postage, the revenues of the department have
increased much beyond the expectation of the friends of the cheap postage
system, while the expenditures, for the same time, have diminished more
than half a million of dollars annually, and that the department is in a
condition to support itself, without further aid from the treasury.”
The number of chargeable letters passed through the mails in 1843, was
stated in the Report at 24,267,552, yielding the sum of $3,525,268. The
number for the year ending June 30, 1847, was 52,173,480, yielding
$3,188,957. Thus the reduction of price one half, has in two years more
than doubled the consumption, and already yields nearly an equal product.
The experiment in Great Britain shows that a still greater reduction may
be perfectly relied upon to give a rate of increase fully proportionable.
The “Companion to the British Almanac,” for 1842, says, “The rate of
postage in the London district, (which includes the limits of the old two
penny post,) averaged 2-⅓_d._ per letter, before the late changes; at
present it averages about 1-¼_d._, and the gross revenue already equals
that of 1835. The gross receipts in 1838, the last complete year under the
old system, were £118,000; the gross revenue for 1840, the first complete
year under the new system, was $104,000.”
The parliamentary committee, in their report in 1838, state, as the result
of all their inquiries, that the total number of chargeable letters
passing through the post-office annually, was about 77,500,000; franks,
7,000,000; total of letters, 84,500,000. The average postage per letter
was 7_d._ The gross receipts annually, for six years, ending with 1820,
were £2,190,597. For six years, ending with 1837, they averaged
£2,251,424. For the year 1847, the number of letters was 320,000,000, and
the gross receipts nearly equal to the old system. Here a reduction of the
price three-fourths, has increased the consumption fourfold. Some other
cases of similar bearing, may be worth stating, taken chiefly from the
parliamentary documents.
Before the reduction of the duty on newspapers in England, the price was
7_d._, and the number sold in a year was 35,576,056, costing the public
£1,037,634. On the reduction of the duty, the price was reduced to
4-¾_d._, and the public immediately paid £1,058,779, for 53,496,207
papers.
Under the high duty on advertisements, when the price was 6_s._ each, the
number was 1,010,000, costing £303,000. By the reduction of the duty, the
price fell to 4_s._, and the number rose to 1,670,000, costing £334,000.
Formerly the fee of admission to the Armory of the Tower of London was
3_s._, at which rate there were in 1838, 9,508 visitors, who paid £1,426.
In 1839, the fee was reduced to 1_s._, and there were 37,431 visitors, who
paid £1,891. In 1840, the fee was reduced to 6_d._, and the number of
visitors in nine months was 66,025, who paid £1,650. During the entire
year ending January 31, 1841, there were 91,897 visitors, who paid £2,297.
The falling of the price of soap one-eighth, increased the consumption
one-third; the falling of tea one-sixth, increased consumption one-half;
the falling of silks one-fifth, doubled the consumption; of coffee
one-fourth, trebled it, and of cotton goods one-half quadrupled it.
A multitude of similar facts could be collected in our own country,
showing the uniform and powerful tendency of diminished cost to increased
consumption. A gentleman who is interested in a certain panorama said
that, in a certain case, the exhibiter wrote to him that the avails, at a
quarter of a dollar per ticket, were not sufficient to pay expenses. “Put
it down to twelve and a half cents,” was the reply. It was done, and
immediately the receipts rose so as to give a net profit of one hundred
dollars a week.
These facts prove that there is a settled law in economics, that in the
case of any article of general use and necessity, a reduction in the price
may be expected to produce at least a corresponding increase of
consumption, and in many cases a very largely increased expenditure. So
that the amount expended by the people at low prices will be fully equal
to the amount expended for the same at high prices. The people of England
expend now as much money for postage, as they did under the old system,
but the advantage is, that they get a great deal more service for their
money, and it gives a spring to business, trade, science, literature,
philanthropy, social affection, and all plans of public utility.