POSTAL SERVICE, the regulation of communication between different parts of a country, or different countries, in cluding especially the forwarding and de livering of letters, newspapers and small packages, and the establishment of a registry system for the transfer of money and the transaction of other finan cial business. In some countries the use of the telephone and the telegraph forms a part of the postal service. Though let ter conveyance is the primary work of the postoffice, many other branches of business have been assumed by it. The word "post" has its particular applica tion from the posts, or stages, at which on the roads of the Roman empire couriers were maintained for the purpose of conveying news and despatches.
Postal Union.—Under the terms of a treaty concluded at Berne, Oct. 9, 1874, the object of which was to secure uni formity in the treatment of correspond ence, and the simplification of accounts, as well as the reduction of rates within certain limits, and whose provisions were carried into operation generally July 1, 1875, the whole of Europe, the United States, Egypt, British India, and all the colonies of France were at the outset, or shortly thereafter, included in the union and many other countries and colonies have since joined it. The international accounts in respect of postages are based on a month's return of correspondence taken every third year.
United States.—The beginnings of a postal service in the United States date from 1639, when the house of Richard Fairbanks in Boston was employed for the receipt and delivery of letters for or from beyond the seas. He was allowed for every letter a penny and was obliged to answer all miscarriages through his own neglect. In 1672 the government of New York colony established "a post to go monthly from New York to Boston"; in 1702 it was changed to a fortnightly one. A general postoffice was estab
lished and erected in Virginia in 1692, and in Philadelphia in 1693. A deputy postmaster-general for America was ap pointed in 1692; and by act of Parlia ment in 1710 he was directed to keep his principal office in New York, "and other chief offices in some convenient place or places in other of Her Majesty's prov inces or colonies in America"; a monop oly was established which included also the transport of travelers, and a tariff was fixed. The system, however, proved a failure, till 1753, when Benjamin Franklin became postmaster-general; when he was removed from office in 1774 the net revenue exceeded $15,000.
In 1789, when the postoffice was trans ferred to the new Federal Government, the number of offices in the 13 States was only about 75. Events in the his tory of the American postal service have been the negotiation of a postal treaty with England (1846) ; the introduction of postage stamps (1847), of stamped en velopes (1852), of the system of regis tering letters (1855) ; and the establish ment of the free-delivery system, and of the traveling postoffice system (1863) ; the introduction of the money order sys tem (1864), of postal cards (1873), and, between the last two dates of stamped newspaper wrappers, and of envelopes bearing requests for the return of the inclosed letter to the writer in case of non-delivery; the formation of the Uni versal Postal Union (1873) ; the issue of "postal notes" payable to bearer (1883) ; and the establishment of a special delivery system (1885), under which let ters bearing an extra 10-cent stamp are delivered by special messengers immedi ately on arrival. See UNITED STATES: Section POST OFFICE.