The Development of Rates of Postage: An Historical and Analytical Study

by A. D. Smith

VI
INTERNATIONAL RATES

(I) INTERNATIONAL LETTER POST

The adoption in numerous countries of the principle of uniformity of rate for inland postal traffic, and the enormous simplification of the system of rates and of their practical administration which it achieved, led naturally to an endeavour to effect a like simplification of the rates for postal traffic exchanged between the various countries. The rates in operation varied enormously, not only as between different countries, but frequently in respect of letters passing between the same two countries.[574]

The arrangements for the exchange of such traffic between different countries had been conducted under conventions and agreements entered into by the countries immediately concerned, and the rates to be charged were prescribed by these conventions or agreements. Foreign rates were often built up by the addition of a rate for the transmission abroad to the ordinary rate chargeable for the inland transmission. The fact that numerous rates were chargeable for one and the same letter in respect of its transmission within the same country thus naturally made the rates charged for transmission abroad likewise numerous. In many cases there was an additional variation in the rate of postage between two countries according as one or other route was followed. And not only were the international rates of postage high and complicated. The methods employed for accounting between the countries respectively concerned in regard to the proceeds of postage on international letters were equally complicated and burdensome.

In 1850 the necessity for some simplification of the arrangements for the interchange of correspondence led to the formation of the Austro-German Postal Union by Prussia and Austria. The chief feature of the arrangement was the adoption of a common rate of postage for the whole territory of the Union, moderate in amount, and based on a small number of zones of distances. The advantages resulting from the Union were soon apparent. Other German States

joined, and within a short time the question of extending it to foreign countries was mooted. At a Conference held in Berlin in 1851, a general European Postal Union was adumbrated.

The first definite suggestion for the general re-organization of international postal traffic on a common basis came, however, from America. In 1863, Mr. Blair, Postmaster-General of the United States, in a note to the postal administrations of the world, suggested the assembling of a Congress representative of all nations for the discussion of the subject. The proposal was favourably received by fifteen administrations,[575] representing nine-tenths of the commerce and nineteen-twentieths of the correspondence of the world. The representatives of these administrations (with the exception of Ecuador) met at Paris in May 1863.

The Conference was not empowered to enter into any definite arrangement for the amelioration of the system of international postal traffic. Its function was simply to discuss and proclaim general principles applicable to the conduct of the traffic, with a view to their ultimate adoption by the nations of the world. The discussions centred on the three fundamental questions of uniformity of weights, uniformity of rate, and simplification of accounting.[576] Thirty-one articles of agreement were adopted.[577] These articles recommended, inter alia, the adoption for ordinary letters of a unit of weight and a progression of weight of 15 grammes; and for corrected proofs, samples, and documents not in the nature of a letter, a unit and progression of 40 grammes. The Conference was convinced that transit charges were often an invincible obstacle to the establishment of a really advantageous international system, and recommended that the transit rate for each country should never exceed half the postage reckoned at the inland rate of the country traversed, and that for small

countries it should be even less. For sea transit the Conference recommended that in no case should the charge against an administration in respect of such transport be greater than the actual charge made on the country of destination by the shipping agency by whom the mails were conveyed.