V. THE SUPPLEMENTAL SERVICES
In connection with the transmission of postal packets, other services, which are supplemental, and in some cases complementary, have been added, e.g. registration and insurance, in order that senders may protect themselves against loss or damage of packets in the post.[733] Closely allied to the transmission of ordinary letters is the transmission of money from place to place, and from early times the Post Office has also undertaken this function for appropriate fees. This is the money order and postal order business. These services apply only to a very small proportion of the total number of packets posted, and may in general be regarded as exceptional.[734]
In addition to these supplemental functions, the Post Office has usually been called upon to undertake services which have little or no relation to the transmission of letters from place to place. Thus, the British Post Office conducts a Savings Bank, undertakes the issue of certain local taxation licences (gun and dog licences, etc.) on behalf of the Inland Revenue Department and local authorities, pays Old Age Pensions, sells stamps on behalf of the National Health and Unemployment Insurance Commissioners, exhibits certain Government notices in the windows of post offices, and, in general, stands ready to perform any service to which, by reason of its ramifications reaching to the remotest part of the kingdom, it may be specially well adapted.[735] In many countries the Post Office has assumed the control of the telegraph or telephone systems, or
both—this, of course, largely in consideration of the close affinity between the essential character of those services—transmission from place to place of information and intelligence—and the primary function of the Post Office; and in consideration of the tendency of those services, like the letter service, to develop on monopolistic lines.[736] In continental countries the Government control of the telegraphs has been regarded as a military necessity.[737] The assumption of these functions has no necessary relation to the rates charged for the transmission of packets, but the circumstances under which the services are conducted, whether at a profit or at a loss, may indirectly affect the rates.
VI. POST OFFICE REVENUE
In England, Germany, and France the Post Office has, almost from the first, been a source of revenue to the State. What has happened has been that since the reform the Governments have been glad to take whatever net revenue a penny rate would yield, but, in general, they have not been prepared to raise that rate in order to obtain a greater revenue.[738] The only one of the five
countries which does not make, and on principle does not wish to make, a revenue out of the Post Office is the United States of America.
The penny letter rate is not by any means as low as the cost of the service. It is, however, not a burdensome charge in any circumstances, and, although so much greater than the cost, represents in a large number of instances much less than the full measure of benefit which the provision of the service confers on the beneficiary. This is, of course, the ordinary case of the purchaser of a commodity securing a "consumer's surplus."[739] Rates which yield a profit of 50 per cent. (pp. [76] and [311]) must, however, be admitted to contain some element of taxation. In France particularly the Post Office occupies a definite place in the fiscal system.[740] There is, however, considerable diversity of opinion among economists with regard to the theoretical character of this revenue. Indeed, the general classification of public revenues is itself not yet agreed upon.[741] Under any classification
there is difficulty in assigning a place for the Post Office revenue. With the simplest and most fundamental division it has been regarded as falling under one or other heading, according to the notion of the writer, or in accordance with certain changes of conception based on variations in attendant circumstances.[742]
The difficulty of classification arises from the fact that of the total amount of the postage charges actually levied, only a portion can in any case be regarded as taxation. A person who purchases a commodity from the State, but in purchasing it is charged something more than its actual value, is not taxed to the extent of the whole of the amount which he is charged. There can be no taxation in that part of the amount for which he receives equivalent value in the commodity purchased. It is easy to say of the gross postal revenue that so much is tax (i.e. the net revenue), and so much is cost of service (i.e. the actual expenses), though it may not be easy to justify even this distinction;[743] but what principle is to be followed in determining whether a particular postage charge (e.g. the letter rate or the parcel rate), or any part of it, is taxation?