These were superseded in 1896 by the following rates:—
| d. | ||
| On orders not exceeding | £2 | 6 |
| £6 | 12 | |
| £10 | 18 |
By 1903 most foreign countries and some of the colonies had agreed to a further reduction of rates and to a £40 limit. In 1905 the poundage on foreign money orders not exceeding £1 in value was diminished from 4d. to 3d.[698]
There is no record of the yearly expenses of the Government for the maintenance of the posts until the accession of James I.[699] There are many instances of the issue of warrants for the payment of the posts but it is not known how long a period they were intended to cover.[700] There was no systematic financial method in dealing with this phase of the postal question. The postmen remained unpaid for years at a time. After sufficient clamour, part of the arrears would be met, but it is impossible to say how much of the sum paid was for current expenses and how much for old debts.[701] It might be supposed from the fact that they received fixed daily wages that some idea might be obtained of the cost of management. But their wages often remained unpaid and the number of postmen varied, as new routes were manned or old routes discontinued, so that any figures for the period before the seventeenth century would be mere guesses.
Until 1626[702] our knowledge of the finances of the Post Office is concerned with expenses only, for there was no product, gross or net, for the state. In 1603, the cost of the posts was £4150 a year.[703] This was the year of James the First's accession, and to this is probably due the fact that payment was made for an entire year. Then there comes a break of several years' duration. In 1621, arrears for the half year ending March 31, 1619, were paid. They amounted to £917. For the next two years the yearly expenses averaged £2984. The total expenses for the financial year ending in March, 1621, were £3404. All the posts to Berwick received 92s. a day, to Dover 17s. 6d., to Holyhead 36s. 8d. and £130 a year for a sailing packet, to Plymouth 25s. a day. The wages for each postmaster varied from 1s. 8d. to 4s. 4d. a day. In addition there was an expenditure of £50 for extraordinary posts and 5s. a day to the paymaster.[704] In 1625, the ordinary expenses were about £4300 a year.[705] It is disappointing not to be able to make any more definite statements concerning the financial operations of the Post Office before 1635, but the unbusinesslike system under which it was conducted must take the blame.
Our ideas of the financial operations of the Post Office from 1635 to 1711 are somewhat clearer than during the preceding period. We know that Witherings' aim was to make the system self-supporting. It had probably not entered into his head that it might ever be anything more. After the sequestration of the position of Postmaster-General to Burlamachi, he was called upon to render an account of the financial proceedings of the Post Office during the short period that he was in charge.[706] He reported that from August 4, 1640, to December 25, 1641, the receipts had been £8363 and the expenditure £4867. £1400 of the balance had been paid to the Secretary of State and "of the remaining £2000, those that keep the office are to be considered for their pains and attendance." This is rather vague but the report shows that the Post Office was self-supporting only six years after Witherings' reforms had been adopted.[707] Prideaux reported at an early period in his régime that, with the exception of the Dover road and the Holyhead packet, the posts paid for themselves.[708] After the Post Office was farmed, there can be no doubt as to the total net revenue, but it is impossible to say how much the farmer made over and above the amount of his farm or how large his expenses were. Manley paid the state £10,000 a year and is said to have made £14,000 during the six years that he farmed the Posts.[709] In 1659 the rent was raised to £14,000[710] a year, and in 1660 there was a further advance to £21,500.[711] Of this £21,500 the Duke of York received £16,117 and the rest was spent largely in paying pensions and for a few minor expenses such as the payment of the Court Postmaster.[712] By the act of 1663, the net Post Office revenue was settled upon the Duke of York and his male heirs, with the exception of about £5000 a year, that being the amount of the pension charges on the revenue.[713] Certain deductions were made from the sum total of rent due, on account of the loss to the farmer from the activity of the interlopers, and the deficit was ordered to be made up from some other branch of the royal revenue.[714]
After James II took his involuntary departure from England, his pecuniary interest in the Post Office ceased. In 1690, an act of Parliament was passed, making the receipts from the Post Office payable into the Exchequer. They were to be used among other things to pay the interest on £250,000 borrowed to carry on the war.[715] From 1690 to 1710, the gross receipts rose from about £70,000 to £90,000 a year, no consideration being taken of the ups and downs caused by the French wars.[716] Complaint was made by the Lords that a large part of the postal revenue was wasted in paying pensions.[717] The Duchess of Cleveland received £4700 a year and William's Dutch General, the Duke of Schomberg, £4000 a year. Poor William Dockwra, the only one of the lot who had ever done anything for the Post Office, was at the end of the list with only £500 a year, terminable in 1697.[718] The sum total of money payable in pensions from the post revenue in 1695 was £21,200. The packet boats at the same time cost £13,000, and but £10,000 was spent for salaries and wages. The net revenue in 1694 was £59,972, the gross being about £88,000.[719]
During the eighteenth century the postal revenue still continued to be burdened with the pensions of favourites, deserving and undeserving. Queen Anne asked Parliament to settle £5000 a year upon the Duke of Marlborough and his heirs. The House of Commons replied that they very much regretted that they could not do so for the Post Office was already paying too much in pensions. Probably the real reason for their refusal was the fact that the Duke and the war party were becoming unpopular. However, the Queen granted him the pension for her own life as she had a legal right to do. In 1713, the total amount of pensions payable from the postal revenue was £22,120. Before the act of 1711 was passed, the Scotch Office had paid £210 to each of the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. This continued to be granted after the two Offices were united.[720]
Our knowledge of the financial operations of the Post Office during the eighteenth century is much more extensive than during the seventeenth, owing to the reports made by the Post Office officials to the Parliamentary committees, appointed to enquire into abuses. The reports are all signed by the Accountant-General or his deputy, and are therefore as trustworthy as anything which can be obtained. They show that during the first half of the century, or more explicitly from 1717 to 1754, there was a very small annual increase in gross product, with an actual decrease in net product, and of course an increase in expenditure. In round numbers the average yearly gross product for the years 1725-29 was £179,000, the net product for the same period being £98,000 and the expenses of management £81,000. For the five years from 1750 to 1754, the average annual gross product was £207,000, net product £97,000, and expenses £110,000. It is not surprising that there was no increase worthy of the name in the gross product, for the period under consideration was a time of stagnation, an intermediate stage just before the dawn of the industrial revolution. The actual decrease in net product or, what amounts to the same thing, the increase in expenses of management, is due largely to the abuse of the franking privilege, the large amounts received in fees and emoluments, the extraordinary way in which the packet service was mismanaged, and the losses and increased expense due to war. Enough has been said about all but the last of these causes. The Post Office suffered most during war from increased expenses and direct losses in connection with the sailing packets. The placing of these upon a war footing involved considerable increased cost. In the second place, extra boats were used for political purposes in addition to those regularly employed, and it was customary for the Post Office to make good to the owners all damages inflicted by the enemy. From 1725 to 1739, the expenses of the Post Office averaged £80,000 or £90,000 a year. Then came the War of the Austrian Succession, when the expenses averaged £105,000 per year from 1745 to 1749. The five following years being a period of peace, the average annual expenses were £110,000, while the Seven Years' War brought them up to £147,000. It may be thought that expenses should become normal again when war has ceased, but it has generally proved to be the rule that although peace brings a decrease, yet the expenditure does not fall quite so low as before the war.
From 1755 to the end of the century there is a marked rise both in gross and net receipts and a comparative diminution in expenses. The gross average annual product from 1755 to 1759 was £228,000, from 1790 to 1794 it was £602,000. For the five years from 1755 to 1759 the average yearly net product was £81,000, from 1790 to 1794 it was £375,000, while expenses had risen for the same periods only from £147,000 to £227,000. The following table shows the average yearly increase or decrease in gross product, expenses, and net products for the six five-year periods from 1765 to 1794. The increases or decreases are given in the form of percentages, each five-year period being compared with the preceding period. [721]