The first business undertaken by the General Post Office, other than that of the despatch and delivery of correspondence, was the Money Order system. This has existed for considerably more than a century, but it was not taken over by the Post Office until the year 1838. It is not difficult to understand why the need for the system became urgent in carrying on the service of the posts. The sending of letters containing money was a constant and almost necessary practice, and the frequent thefts of letters of this kind became a public scandal. In 1791 a scheme was proposed to the Postmaster-General, but the legal adviser of the Department raised difficulties, and eventually it was decided that the business could not be officially adopted. Then followed the curious history of a private undertaking sanctioned and encouraged by the Postmaster-General. The six Clerks of the Roads, who were already conducting a large newspaper business for their own advantage, came forward with a proposal to undertake a Money Order plan, or as it was then called a “Money Letter” plan, and the Postmaster-General decided to give it official countenance. That is to say, he bore the cost of advertising it and allowed the advices of the Money Orders to go free by post under the frank of the Secretary of the Post Office. The Clerks of the Roads traded under the name of a private firm. They issued orders and advices very much as at present, the amounts paid and received being accounted for quarterly with the Clerks of the Roads.
The theory of those opposed to the Postmaster-General undertaking directly the business, was that the money used by the country postmasters in the business was not the public revenue, but money which they had received as agents for the Clerks of the Roads in their newspaper business.
The scheme came into operation on 1st October 1792, and the limit of a Money Order was fixed at £5, 5s., and the commission charged was at first 6d. in the £1, of which the payee contributed half. The commission was reduced in 1793 to 4d. for Orders to and from London, while it remained at 6d. between country towns. Subsequently the commission rose to 8d. in the £1 for all Orders, in addition to stamp duty.
Over and above the commission on the Orders and the stamp duty the persons making use of them were obliged to pay the high postage of double letters, as the packet would contain both a letter and a Money Order. This was felt to be such a burden that in 1837 the Orders were printed at the top of a large sheet of paper on which a letter might be written, and the whole might pass for a single postage.
The capital embarked originally in the Money Order business by the Clerks of the Roads was £1000, and it does not seem to have been, even with the countenance of the Post Office, a paying concern, for in 1798 the Clerks of the Roads abandoned it, their loss on the six years' trading being £298. Three of the clerks, however, continued the business as a private speculation, and the anomaly of the arrangement came in for a great deal of adverse criticism. At last, in 1829, a Commission reported that they entirely disapproved of such a concern being carried on by private persons for their own profit, and they recommended “that its management should be directly controlled by proper officers of the Department, and that the produce be appropriated to the Revenue.” It was nine years, however, after the Commission reported before the Postmaster-General was able to act on the suggestion, and to compensate the officers whose vested interests in the business had to be considered.
The London Postman.
(Old Style.)
The London postman of seventy or eighty years ago had to collect and account for the charge made on every letter, and there were no letter-boxes in front doors where he could discharge his correspondence.