Part 43

[630] This definition indicates the strict nature of "forward" packets. In practice it is, however, impracticable to divide postal packets precisely on these lines, and the actual statistics of "forward" packets are not exactly accurate. The practical division approximates, however, to the line of the exact division.

[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.

[639] It appeared in the English letter rate of 1885, but disappeared with the changes of 1897. It has been reintroduced into the letter rate with the war changes of November 1915, and the result is an awkward scale.

[640] This point is dealt with more fully in connection with the parcel rate.

The whole question of subsidiary rates is dismissed by Bastable with the following:--

"One of the principal distinctions now turns on the character of the articles transmitted. Circulars and postcards would not bear the same charge as ordinary letters. The transmission of newspapers gives a yet smaller fund of utility on which to levy a tax, and is affected by the competition of carrying agencies. The result is seen in the lower halfpenny rate."--C. F. Bastable, _Public Finance_, London, 1903, p. 208.

[641] In England two-fifths of the total number of postal packets pass at a halfpenny.

[642] The concession of specially low rates for these classes of packets has given rise to a noteworthy general line of division between postal packets. All packets passing at privileged rates must obviously be subject to examination and check by the Post Office in order to ensure that the privilege is not abused, a necessity which leads immediately to the principle of the "open" post, as contrasted with the "closed" post, the ordinary sealed letter packet. The difference in charge is not, however, based on the consideration that the packets are open to inspection. The effect is in the reverse direction. The view of practical officers is that, other things being equal, the treatment of a packet sent by the Open Post is more expensive to the Post Office than its treatment if sent by Letter Post.

The requirement is imposed in order that compliance with other conditions may be ensured. In none of the five countries are ordinary letters allowed to pass at postcard rate if merely enclosed in open covers. But a printed circular letter, if sent in a sealed cover, would lose its claim to the privileged rate.

[643] "Fixing a railway rate is, in one word, an art--not a science, and it is an art which, in Bagehot's phrase, must be exercised 'in a sort of twilight, ... in an atmosphere of probabilities and of doubt, where nothing is very clear, where there are some chances for many events, where there is much to be said for several courses, where, nevertheless, one course must be determinedly chosen and fixedly adhered to.'"--W. M. Acworth, _Elements of Railway Economics_, Oxford, 1905, p. 73.

"The problem of railway rates has not, like that of postal charges, passed beyond the domain of current discussion. This is in part due to the fact that railways are universally regarded as a source of profit, to companies when privately owned, to the State when public property; but it is in larger measure due to the fact that the social significance of railways is not yet clearly understood. The problem of railway rates is a problem by itself, and stands as one of the most important of the unsettled problems of the day."--H. C. Adams, _Science of Finance_, New York, 1909, p. 280.

[644] "The cost of the service of transport for any given commodity cannot, under the varying conditions of railway operation, be even approximately calculated. The first insuperable difficulty is the division of the expenditure for any given work. Though railway economists have endeavoured, by means various and ingenious, to allocate the different items of railway expenditure, they have been unable to determine such a relatively simple matter as the division between passenger and goods traffic, and though estimates have been formulated, many of the charges have been allocated to one head or another by arbitrary decision, and not as a result of positive knowledge."--_Railway News_, London, 6th September 1913, p. 396.

[645] "Though all the rates must be so fixed as to pay all the expenses both of construction and working, separate rates cannot be fixed according to cost of individual service or even according to the average cost of services to traffic in the same group. For in the first place the cost of the service cannot be ascertained. And secondly, if it could be ascertained, it would be of no use as a standard. To charge the average cost would be to drive away a large portion of the traffic and so increase almost proportionately the average cost of the remainder. This increase would then drive away a fresh portion, and so once more increase proportionately the cost to that still remaining. And so on."--W. M. Acworth, "The Theory of Railway Rates," _Economic Journal_, London, 1897, p. 324.

[646] "The process is in practice worked out as follows. First comes classification. The whole of the commodities known to commerce are entered on a list divided into classes, eight in number here, six in France, and about ten in number in the United States. To each class belongs a normal scale of rates, ranging, let us say, from 3/4d. per mile in the lowest to 4d. per mile in the highest. The classification undoubtedly takes account of greater or less cost of carriage to the companies, arising out of the differences of packing, liability to theft or damage, proportion of space occupied to weight, etc. But it is safe to say that its main principle is, the more valuable the commodity, the higher the rate it can afford to pay."--Ibid., p. 325.

[647] "Historically this theory has been recognized and approved by English legislation from the time when Adam Smith applauded the equity of statutory turnpike tolls at the rate of one shilling for a light carriage and eightpence for a heavy dray, through the whole long series of Canal Acts and Railway Acts, down to the elaborately careful revision of the railway companies' charging powers in the series of Provisional Order Confirmation Acts dated 1891 and 1892. The opinion of modern economists all over the world as to the justice of the underlying principle may be conveniently summarized in a sentence borrowed from the first annual report of the American Interstate Commerce Commission: 'With this method of arranging tariffs little fault is found, and perhaps none at all by persons who consider the subject from the standpoint of public interest.'"--Ibid., p. 317.

[648] "One great element of the reform introduced by you in the postage was, that there should be one uniform rate throughout?--Yes, it was proposed with a view to simplification, but the principle has been carried to an extent that I did not contemplate, and did not recommend."--Evidence of Sir Rowland Hill, _Report of Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps_, 1851, Question No. 1945.

[649] In the same way that the soap-makers of Port Sunlight secured a large sale by the simple expedient of refraining from varying the price of their tablets of soap with the variations in the cost of raw materials, making the adjustment in the weight of the tablets instead of in the price; and for the same reason that many people prefer restaurants widely known and with numerous branches, not always because the charges are less, but because it is well known what the charges and what the service obtained will be.

[650] In the United Kingdom less than 50 per cent. exceed 2 pounds in weight, and not more than 1 per cent. exceed 10 pounds. The proportion for short-distance parcels is much less, and the proportion for foreign parcels is very much greater, over 15 per cent. being above 10 pounds in weight.

[651] Even in the London postal area, which is of considerable extent, the local traffic is quite small, amounting to some four or five million parcels only per annum in a total traffic of some 130 millions.

[652] I.e. the actual cost incurred by a Government in providing packet services, not the amounts paid to intermediate countries as "transit rates" under the International Convention.

[653]

Total area of Europe 3,800,000 square miles. " " United States (with Alaska) 3,600,000 " " " Canada 3,700,000 "

Of the total area of Europe, Russia accounts for some 2,100,000 square miles.

[654] E.g. the transportation of Indian mails through France and Italy. For this service a special train in each direction between Calais and Brindisi is provided by the French and Italian Governments, and the payment made by the British Government in respect of the service is much in excess of the ordinary transit rates fixed by the Postal Union Convention.

[655] The following particulars relate to the British Packet Service in 1860:--

+-----------+-----------+------------+---------- | Contract | Other |Sea Postage.| Profit or Packets. | Payments. | Payments. | | Loss. ------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+---------- | [L] | [L] | [L] | [L] Dover and Calais } | 18,600 | 4,100 | 79,000 | + 56,300 Dover and Ostend } | | | | Peninsular | 5,000 | 800 | 4,000 | - 1,800 North American | 189,500 | 400 | 112,000 | - 77,900 West Indian } | | | | Pacific } | 293,500 | 8,900 | 103,600 | -198,800 Brazilian } | | | | West Coast of Africa | 30,000 | -- | 4,500 | - 25,500 Cape of Good Hope | 38,000 | -- | 9,300 | - 28,700 Australian | 90,200 | 4,300 | 30,300 | - 64,200 East Indian | 163,000 | 17,300 | 111,000 | - 69,300 | | | | On the whole service } | 827,800 | 35,800 | 453,700 | -409,900 the figures were } | | | | ------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+----------

--_Annual Report of the Postmaster-General_, 1860, Appx. H, pp. 34-7.

[656] In 1860, when the total number of foreign letters was very much less than at present, the cost of the British foreign packet service was some [L]860,000, and in 1913 the cost had fallen to some [L]700,000.--_Annual Reports of the Postmaster-General_, 1860, pp. 34-7; 1913-14, p. 51.

[657] _Vide supra_, Chapter VI.

[658] E.g., parcel mails are not forwarded by the train between Calais and Brindisi run specially for the Indian mails. Parcels are, it is true, forwarded to America by the Cunard packets which carry the letter mails, but this arrangement is due to special circumstances. The Cunard line, being heavily subsidized (with other than Post Office ends in view), is required to carry all mails tendered. Otherwise it might be found economical to send parcels by slower cargo boats.

[659] _Wealth of Nations_, ed. 1904, vol. ii., p. 303.

[660] "The business being one which both can and ought to be conducted on fixed rules, is one of the few businesses which it is not unsuitable to a Government to conduct."--J. S. Mill, _Principles of Political Economy_, London, 1871, vol. ii. bk. v. chap. v. [S] 2.

"It is clear that the restriction put upon the liberty of trade by forbidding private letter-carrying establishments is a breach of State duty. It is also clear that were that restriction abolished, a natural postal system would eventually grow up, could it surpass in efficiency our existing one. And it is further clear that if it could not surpass it, the existing system might rightly continue; for the fulfilment of postal functions by the State is not _intrinsically_ at variance with the fulfilment of its essential function."--Herbert Spencer, _Social Statics_, London, 1910, p. 120.

Professor Cannan sums the matter up from the point of view of modern opportunism:--

"Much too great importance is commonly attributed to this part of State action: the sale of commodities. We may be sure that if the State had not happened to undertake the business of carrying letters, some private organization would have been established for the purpose. Whether it would have done the work better or worse than the present State Post Office does it, is a question which we have no means of answering. So, too, on the other hand, if the State in this country had undertaken the provision of railways, we should have had a railway system of some sort; it might have been a better or it might have been a worse system; whether it would have been better or worse would have depended on the wisdom of those who had the largest share in devising and extending it, and who these persons would have been, and what their wisdom would have been, we have no means of telling."--Edwin Cannan, _Elementary Political Economy_, London, 1903, p. 132.

[661] "Before the rise of the economic schools that opposed industrial action on the part of the State, the method of public postal service was firmly established, and was seen to give, on the whole, sufficiently satisfactory results. It, therefore, escaped the hostile criticism that economists freely bestowed on the less efficient public departments."--C. F. Bastable, _Public Finance_, London, 1903, p. 208.

[662] "He was always eager to improve the mail service to remote towns; and would observe that one good result of State management was the consideration of out-of-the-way places. A private management, he said, might probably have introduced a halfpenny post in London, and have left the country worse served than at present."--Leslie Stephen, _Life of Henry Fawcett_, London, 1885, p. 438.

[663] "The Post Office is properly a mercantile project. The Government advances the expense of establishing the different offices and buying or hiring the necessary horses or carriages, and is repaid with a large profit by the duties upon what is carried. It is perhaps the only mercantile project which has been successfully managed by, I believe, every sort of Government. The capital to be advanced is not very considerable. There is no mystery in the business. The returns are not only certain but immediate."--_Wealth of Nations_, ed. 1904, vol. ii., p. 303.

[664] _Vide supra_, p. 26.

[665] In the United Kingdom the expense incurred in providing specially for the disposal of parcels in this way often exceeds the total amount of the postage paid on the parcels.

[666] In the United Kingdom, horse-posts or cycle-posts are in general provided in view of the length of the route to be traversed, rather than in view of the weight of traffic to be carried.

[667] The need for such a separation between ordinary letters and packets of appreciable weight is felt even in regard to the letter post itself. In England, the extension of the weight limit for penny letters, and the reduction of the rates for the heavier letters, has led to serious practical difficulties and has impeded smooth and rapid working. In the larger offices the letter post traffic is dealt with in two divisions: (1) the lighter, homogeneous traffic, the light letters and postcards; and (2) the heavier packets, and packets of irregular shape (p. 285). In France, the extension of the maximum limit of weight gave rise to similar difficulties; so much so that the question of establishing a separate slower post for such packets has been seriously considered. In Paris, at the present time, there is a completely separate indoor and outdoor staff for the newspapers and packets.

[668] It is only necessary to glance into a van containing railway parcels in order to realize how impossible it would be to apply to such packages the usual postal method of enclosure in sacks; and conveyance _[a'] d['e]couvert_ by railway companies on behalf of the Post Office would give rise to obvious practical difficulties. In Germany and Switzerland postal parcels are so despatched, but the railways are State-owned in those countries, and the service is in many respects a railway service.

[669] The railways frequently establish receiving offices in various parts of a town. The services necessary for the conveyance of parcels from these offices to the railway stations are not, however, comparable with the services for closed parcel mails between the post offices and the stations, but rather with the services between branch post offices and the chief post office. The service from the chief post office to the railway station is a further service.

[670] In France heavy parcels are not accepted at post offices, but must be taken to a railway station. _Vide supra_, p. 206.

[671] The general proportion of parcels to letters for the United Kingdom as a whole is 1 in 40; but on some of the remoter rural routes the proportion of parcels frequently rises to 1 in 20, and sometimes to more than 1 in 10.

[672] _Vide supra_, pp. 190 and 219.

[673] The naval operations during the present war in regard to neutral mails have brought out clearly the essential distinction between letters and parcels. The arguments as to the customary inviolability of mails have been based on the idea of free communication. But parcels containing goods, possibly contraband, e.g. rubber, obviously cannot claim the privileges of communications, and the right of sea-power to interfere with parcel mails has been admitted. "The Government of the United States is inclined to regard parcels post articles as subject to the same treatment as articles sent by express or freight in respect of belligerent search, seizure, and condemnation."--United States Note to Great Britain, 10th January 1916.

[674] For particulars of other Acts relating to packet postage, and of Acts relating to Ship Letters, and to rates of postage within Ireland, see Schedule A of 1 Vict., cap. 32. Rates for transmission within Ireland were also fixed by 1 Vict., cap. 34 ([S] 4).

[675] _Vide supra_, p. 6, n. 1.

[676] Ibid., p. 7.

[677] _Calendar of State Papers_ (_Domestic Series_), 1625-6, p. 523.

[678] H. Joyce, _History of the Post Office_, p. 12.

[679] H. Scobell, _A Collection of Acts and Ordinances_, London, 1658, p. 513.

[680] H. Joyce, ibid., p. 72.

[681] Ibid., p. 73.

[682] H. Scobell, ibid.

[683] _Historical Summary of Post Office Services_, London, 1911, p. 47.

[684] The number of letters still handed in to the General Post Office was, however, quite considerable. Thus, in 1686, 60,447 ship letters were received.--_Vide_ H. Joyce, ibid., p. 74.

[685] _London Gazette_, No. 3247, 21st-24th December 1696; cited H. Joyce, ibid., n. 2.

[686] 9 Anne, cap. 10, [S] 16.

[687] H. Joyce, ibid., p. 329.

[688] Act of 39 Geo. III., cap. 76, [S][S] 1 and 2; H. Joyce, ibid.; J. C. Hemmeon, _History of the British Post Office_, p. 124.

[689] H. Joyce, ibid., p. 330.

[690] 54 Geo. III, cap. 169.

[691] H. Joyce, ibid., p. 362.

[692] Ibid., p. 363; 55 Geo. III, cap. 153.

[693] The Marquis of Clanricarde.

[694] "The principle upon which the postal communication between England and the Australian colonies has latterly been conducted is, that a postage of 6d. for a single letter has been charged, of which 4d. was understood to represent the sea rate, 1d. for collecting or delivering a single letter in any part of the United Kingdom, and the same in any part of the colonies; so that the whole cost of sending a letter from any part of the United Kingdom to any part of the Australian colonies, or _vice vers[^a]_, should not exceed 6d.

"As the whole cost of the packet service has hitherto been borne by the Imperial Government, the portion of the postage which represented the sea service has been accounted for to the Home Post Office, so that of the 6d. charged, 5d. has been appropriated to England, and 1d. to the colony receiving or despatching the letter, as the case might be."--_Second Report of the Postmaster-General_, London, 1856, p. 66.

[695] Cf. H. Joyce, ibid., pp. 138-9.

[696] Cf. note 1, opposite.

[697] 18th Report, 1829, and 22nd Report, 1830.

[698] _Historical Summary of Post Office Services_, p. 52.

[699] _Historical Summary of Post Office Services_, p. 55.