United Kingdom
Local postal services, providing for the delivery of local letters at reduced rates of postage, existed in the United Kingdom over a long period. The first service was established in London in 1680. Up to this time the business of the Post Office had been restricted to the transmission of letters between the post towns, and no rate of postage existed except in respect of letters sent over appreciable distances.[530] The idea of a local service seems to have originated with a Mr. Robert Murray; but the London local post was actually established by William Dockwra, "a merchant, a Native and Citizen of London, formerly one of his Majesty's Sub-Searchers in the Custom House of London." Other citizens of London were concerned in the undertaking, which was established without reference to the authorities of the Post Office, and was intended to be purely a private commercial undertaking.[531]
Under Dockwra's scheme London, with Westminster and the suburbs, was divided into seven districts or "precincts," in each of which was a "sorting house." Scattered over the City and suburbs were from four hundred to five hundred receiving houses for the taking-in of letters. Messengers called at the houses for letters every hour. Letters and parcels not exceeding 1 pound in weight or £10 in value were accepted and conveyed at the uniform charge of 1d., payable in advance.
The service was not restricted to letters for delivery within the London area and the surrounding district. Letters which were to be transmitted through the General Post[532] were accepted at any of the receiving offices, and conveyed to the General Post Office in Lombard Street; and letters received in London by the General Post were delivered by the penny post, if for places outside the General Post delivery.[533] This facility proved of much advantage to the public, and led to a large increase in the number of General Post letters. When well established, Dockwra's new system proved profitable and attracted the attention of the authorities of the General Post Office. They contended that the service was an infringement of the monopoly conferred on the Postmasters-General by the Act of 1660,[534] and in 1683, at the instance of the Duke of York, in whom were vested the profits of the General Post Office, an action was brought against Dockwra to restrain him from continuing a breach of the privilege of the Postmasters-General. Dockwra was ordered by the court to pay nominal damages, and was forbidden to continue his penny post.
The post was not, however, abolished, but was taken over and managed by the Postmasters-General. Although the service had been decided to fall within their monopoly, the rates charged rested on no legal authority. No statute authorized the conveyance anywhere of letters at the rate of 1d. No authority existed for any rate below the minimum General Post rate of 2d., under the Act of 1660, a state of affairs which continued until the passing of the Act of 1711. A penny rate of postage was then fixed for all letters "passing or repassing by the carriage called the Penny Post, established and settled within the cities of London and Westminster, and borough of Southwark, and parts adjacent, and to be received and delivered within 10 English miles distant from the General Post Office in London."[535] At first the service had included only the cities of London and Westminster, the
borough of Southwark, and the immediate suburbs; but the residents in the neighbouring towns and villages, recognizing the advantage of the system, soon asked that it might be extended to include their respective localities, voluntarily agreeing to pay an additional penny on delivery, on each letter. This further charge was at first appropriated by the messengers as their remuneration; but as the amount received by them in this way was found to exceed what might fairly be regarded as reasonable wages, the second penny was in 1687 made part of the ordinary revenue of the Post Office. There was, however, no legal authority for the collection of this additional charge, which remained a voluntary payment until 1730.[536]
The limit of weight for packets sent by the penny post was also extended, parcels of considerable size and weight being accepted. The rate of postage, however, remained uniform at a penny. One of the charges against Dockwra in later years, when he was dismissed from the office of Comptroller of the Penny Post, to which he had been appointed under William III, was that he forbade the taking in of any but very small band-boxes, and all parcels over 1 pound in weight.[537]
The penny post was found to be a great convenience to Londoners and dwellers in the vicinity.[538] It facilitated both local intercourse and, through its connection with the General Post, general intercourse with all parts of the country. It was also advantageous in a way which was not satisfactory to the Postmaster-General. For some years before its establishment there had been much difficulty from the evasion of postage resulting from the illicit transmission of letters. Carriers, especially, made a business of the conveyance of letters. The difficulty had been so serious that in the reigns
both of Charles II and of James II special officers had been appointed whose duty it was to search any person or vehicle suspected of carrying clandestine mails. The establishment of the penny post led to a very large development of this traffic. Previously, when the carriers arrived with the letters, there was no means at their disposal for effecting distribution and delivery within London, other than by themselves delivering the letters individually, or by employing special messengers, or, in the last resort, by employing the General Post, to avoid whose charge was the whole object of entrusting letters to the carriers. The penny post removed this difficulty, and the public were not slow to avail themselves of the opportunity afforded.[539]
The penny post did not, however, mark the limit of possibility in the way of cheap postal facilities. In 1708 Charles Povey established a halfpenny post in London, and found this low rate profitable. His undertaking, like that of Dockwra, proved to be an infringement of the monopoly of the Postmasters-General, and was suppressed within a few months, although Povey was very reluctant to discontinue his service.[540]
The London penny post was for a long period the only local post in the kingdom. Its advantages were, however, generally recognized, and the Post Office Act of 1765[541] gave to the Postmasters-General power to establish penny posts in any town where that course seemed to them expedient. Under this authority numerous penny posts were established in all parts of the country. As many as 202 such penny posts were established between 1830 and 1837. They were established only when it could be reasonably anticipated that the yield of
the penny postage would cover the expenses of the service; but when once established they were not usually discontinued, even if the revenue fell below the expenses.[542] Like the London penny post, these local services included the area surrounding the town in each case. For transmission within a penny post area the rate of postage was 1d.; for transmission to another such area the general rate was charged in addition; and another penny was charged in respect of the second penny post.
The conveyance of parcels ceased in 1765. The Act of that year[543] forbade the transmission by the penny post of any packet over 4 ounces in weight unless it had passed, or was intended afterwards to pass, by the General Post. During all this period, however, the people of London enjoyed an efficient postal service which in point of lowness of charges was in advance of anything they have enjoyed since, unless the privileges of the postcard and the halfpenny post, that is, of a rate half the minimum (and only) rate of the penny post, can be set against the cheap transmission of considerable packages by the old service.
A further Act of 1794[544] empowered the Postmasters-General at their discretion to extend the limits of the post beyond the 10-mile circle prescribed by the Act of 1711. No additional postage was imposed on letters delivered beyond the 10-mile circle. Under the Act of 1730 the charge would be 2d. An additional rate of 1d. was, however, imposed on all letters posted within the extended limits and beyond the 10-mile circle; and also on all letters posted without the original limits of the penny post and delivered within those limits, i.e. the cities of London and Westminster, and the borough of Southwark, with their suburbs. By this Act prepayment of postage, hitherto compulsory in the penny post, was made optional.
An Act of 1801[545] raised to 2d. the rate for letters passing by the penny post, whether or not they were to pass by the General Post, within the original limits of the penny post. For letters passing by the penny post, posted or delivered outside the original limits, no additional rate was prescribed.
The charge was already 2d.; and the rate of postage on letters passing by the London local post therefore now became uniformly 2d. Henceforward the service was known as the "twopenny post."
The Act of 1801 contained an important clause (clause 5) of general application, providing that the Postmasters-General might at discretion undertake the conveyance and delivery of letters "directed to persons abiding in towns, villages, and places (not being post-towns)," for such sums as might be agreed upon between the Postmasters-General and the inhabitants. Under this provision it was found possible to extend the service to a considerable number of places.[546]
An Act of 1805[547] imposed an additional charge of 1d., making 3d. in all, on letters sent by the twopenny post and not passing by the General Post, directed to or sent from places beyond the limits of the General Post delivery; and on every letter passing by the General Post and directed to places beyond the limits of the General Post delivery, and delivered by the twopenny post, an additional charge of 2d.[548] There were now, in reality, two local posts in the London area—the twopenny post, for letters transmitted between places within the limits of the delivery of the General Post; and the threepenny post, for letters directed to or sent from places within the limits of the local service, but beyond the limits of the General Post delivery. In 1831 the limits of delivery of the twopenny post were extended to include all places within a radius of 3 miles of the General Post Office; and in 1833 the limits of the threepenny post were extended to include all places beyond the 3-mile limit, and not exceeding 12 miles from the General Post Office.[549] No further modifications of importance were made before the establishment of uniform penny postage.
The introduction of a uniform rate of postage for the whole country of 1d., only half the lowest rate which had been charged in the London local post, obviously made unnecessary the continuance of that post, and also of the penny posts scattered up and down the country; or rather extended to the whole country the benefit of rates based on items of local cost only, since the system of uniform postage irrespective of distance rests on the recognition of the preponderating cost of the local or terminal services, and the relatively insignificant cost per letter of the service—conveyance from place to place—which depends on the distance of transmission.
Financially the London penny and twopenny posts were always successful. Under the penny rate the profits had approached half the gross receipts—in 1800 they were 43 per cent.—and under the twopenny rate at once rose to more than 60 per cent., in 1825 reaching 67 per cent. The net revenue, which in 1801 under the penny rate was £16,286, had in 1837 under the twopenny rate risen to £73,334.[550]