[631] Adjusted to allow for the fact that two men are needed to work the machine-stamp. The cost of the machine-stamp itself is a negligible item.
[632] For the relative cost of delivery the same rates are taken as for the cost of sorting. There are no data on which any actual comparison can be based, but it is obvious that the same features, viz. irregularity of shape and size, which lead to differences in the cost of sorting lead to similar differences in much the same degree in the cost of delivery.
[633] The average weight of letter packets not exceeding 1 ounce is 0.357 ounce. The average weight of all letter packets is 0.747 ounce. In the case of packets between 1 ounce and 2 ounces the average weight is assumed to be 1.4 ounces; and 2.6 ounces in the case of those between 2 ounces and 4 ounces.
Of ordinary letter packets, 86.34 per cent. do not exceed 1 ounce in weight, 5.25 per cent. are between 1 ounce and 2 ounces, and 4.53 per cent. are between 2 ounces and 4 ounces in weight.
The average weight of a postcard is 0.142 ounce, of a halfpenny packet 0.498 ounce, and of a newspaper packet 4.264 ounces (97.57 per cent. containing only one newspaper, average weight 4.159 ounces; 2.43 per cent. containing two or more newspapers, average weight 8.461 ounces).
[634] Life of Sir Rowland Hill and History of Penny Postage, vol. i., p. 249.
[635] Sir Rowland Hill was strongly of opinion that the use of the railway increased the cost of conveyance of mails (Life of Sir Rowland Hill and History of Penny Postage, vol. i., pp. 329 and 412). The cost of conveyance by stage-coach from London to Edinburgh was, according to Sir Rowland Hill, about 1/36th of a penny per letter, and less for the whole country (ibid., vol. i., p. 249; Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability, pp. 18-19). The cost of conveyance by railway at present averages for the whole kingdom about .05d. per letter.
[636] An important fact in this connection is that the service is adjusted to the circumstances of the respective countries. Thus, in England and France, provision is made for the delivery of letters at every house in the country, while in the United States and Canada there is in general no house-to-house delivery in rural districts. Until recently there was no rural delivery service of any kind in the latter countries. Letters could be obtained only at the rural post offices. And the system now being introduced provides only for delivery into roadside boxes at the points on the rural deliverer's route nearest to the house of the addressee. Such adjustments, of course, materially affect the cost and profit of the service.
[637] E.g. the war increases in the United Kingdom and in other countries. The point is further considered in the Appendix "Post Office Revenue," infra, p. [358] ff.
[638] Graphically, the variation of the number of letters with changes in the rate of postage would be represented by an asymptotic curve.