The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance

At Arbroath, now an important town, the revenue was, in 1763, L76, 12s. 8d., and the postmaster's salary, L20. At this figure the salary remained till 1794, though the revenue had increased to L367, 13s. 5d.; but now the postmaster appealed for higher pay, and brought up his supports of office-rent, coal, candles, wax, &c., to strengthen his case. In Dundee, in the year 1800, the postmaster's salary was L50, and the revenue L3165, 9s. 5d. At Paisley, the postmaster's salary was fixed at L33 in 1790 and remained at that figure till 1800 when a petition was sent forward for what was called in official language an augmentation. In the memorial it is stated that the revenue for 1799 was L1997, 1s. 11d., and that the deductions for rent, coal, candles, wax, paper, pens, and ink, reduced the postmaster's salary to from L15 to L20 a-year! To show how these towns have grown up into importance within a period of little more than the allotted span of man, and as exhibiting perhaps the yet more bounding expansion of the Post-office system, the following particulars are added, and may prove of interest:-- At Aberdeen, at the present time, the annual value of postage-stamps sold, which may be taken as a rough measure of the revenue from the carriage of correspondence alone, is little short of L30,000; the staff of all sorts employed numbers 191; and the postmaster's salary exceeds L600 a-year. Arbroath is less pretentious, being a smaller town; but the letter revenue is over L4000 a-year; the persons employed, 14; and the postmaster's salary nearly L200. Dundee shows a postage revenue of over L35,000; 193 persons are employed there; and the postmaster's salary is little short of L600. While at Paisley the revenue from stamps is nearly L10,000; the persons employed, 43; and the postmaster's salary, L300. Notwithstanding the vast decrease in the rates of postage, these figures show, in three of the cases mentioned, that the revenue from letters is now about twelve times what it was less than a century ago.