The post office and its story an interesting account of the activities of a great government department

Then the long peace which followed on Waterloo, and the introduction of the railways, opened up the Continent to the traveller, and year by year the communications, friendly and commercial, between the nations increased. And nothing irritated both the traveller and the business man more than the capricious varieties in postal rates which existed in Europe prior to 1875. There were in existence treaties, agreements, and understandings between different nations on the subject of postal communications, but every national Post Office made the best terms it could for itself when making a treaty, and there was no approach to uniformity. The idea of each nation was to make the foreigner pay, and while in many instances this policy may have meant an immediate increase of revenue to the particular Government, it did not help the trade of the country, which suffered also from the natural efforts of the rival country to pursue a policy of retaliation in postal matters. There were many units of weight in use; and the scale of progression was variable, as were also the charges. The latter were very high, and their calculation was a matter of great difficulty. A letter which had to be sent in transit through several countries was charged according to the different units and progressions of weight in vogue. Thus the postage on such a letter was ordinarily composed of the internal rate of the country of origin, the internal rate of that of destination, the rate of each country it passed through, and the charge for sea transit where such means was employed. With the ideas then prevalent, it seemed to be not only good business but the fair and square thing all round, that every nation should exact its full charge on every letter which passed through its boundaries.