X. Table showing the Increase of Expense in the British Post Office, consequent upon the Increase of the Number of Letters under the new System; the Rate per Letter of the Cost of additional Letters, and the Profits realized from such Increase, expressed in decimals of a penny.
| Years. | Increase of Letters. | Increase of Cost. | Additional Cost. | Additional Profit. |
| 1840 | 93,000,000 | £70,231 | d. 0.181 | d. 0.819 |
| 1841 | 27,500,000 | 101,678 | 0.887 | 0.113 |
| 1842 | 12,000,000 | 72,256 | 1.445 | [12] |
| 1843 | 12,000,000 | 35,826 | 0.716 | 0.284 |
| 1844 | 21,500,000 | [13] | — | 1.004 |
| 1845 | 29,500,000 | 6,870 | 0.055 | 0.945 |
| 1846 | 28,000,000 | 140,576 | 1.205 | [14] |
| 1847 | 2,2500,000 | 23,879 | 0.257 | 0.746 |
N. B. The increase of letters since 1839 is 246 millions, and cost of the increase is .347 of a penny; so that every letter now added to the circulation yields a net profit to the government of .625d., or nearly two thirds of the penny postage.
Footnotes
[1.]“The estimate for 1839 is founded on the ascertained number of letters for one week in the month of November, and strictly speaking, it is for the year ending Dec. 5th, at which time 4d. was made the maximum rate. The estimate for each subsequent year is founded on the ascertained number of letters for one week in each calendar month.” [2.]“This is exclusive of about six and a half millions of franks.”[3.]The number of franks was ascertained for each of the weeks ending January 11, January 21, and February 4, 1838; and the mean of these three gives 126,212 as the estimated number for one week, which is 8 per cent. of the whole, and leaves 1,459,761 as the number of chargeable letters.[4.]Week ending April 21, 1847. The whole number in the week ending February was 6,569,696. The number 6,148,876, for one week, multiplied by 52, gives 319,741,552, the total number for the year 1847.[5.]Namely, the gross receipts, after deducting the returns for refused letters, &c.[6.]Including all payments out of the revenue in its progress to the Exchequer, except advances to the Money Order Office; of these sums £10,307 10s. per annum is for pensions, and forms no part of the disbursements on account of the service of the Post Office.[7.]This year includes one month of the Fourpenny Rate.[8.]By multiplying any of these numbers by 13, you get the number for 62 weeks, which is, for all practical purposes, the number for a year; as 20,087,971 in 1839, to 109,362,997 in 1847[9.]Estimated from an enumeration for four several weeks in that year.[10.]The Penny Rate commenced Jan. 10, 1840; Stamps, May 6, 1840.[11.]The increase of the total, since 1839, is 418 per cent.; of paid in coin, since 1840, 39 per cent.; of unpaid, since 1841, 21 per cent.; of stamps, since 1841, 183 per cent.[12.]Cost diminished by £364, equal to d. 0.004 per letter.[13.]Cost increased equal to d. 0.445 per letter.[14.]Cost increased equal to d. 0.205 per letter.