The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the History of Penny Postage, Vol. 2 (of 2)Hill, Rowland, Sir
History
The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the History of Penny Postage, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Hill, Rowland, Sir
Hill, Rowland, Sir, 1795-1879; Postal service -- Great Britain -- Rates
The mode of proceeding, when application was made to me on the subject,
was, so far as I remember, for the managers of the morning journals to
send a special messenger to Marseilles to receive there such part of
the mail as pertained to them. On arriving at Boulogne the messenger
took this on board a steamer specially hired for the purpose, and
immediately upon reaching Dover handed it over to writers sent down
from London, who returned by a special train, making their abstracts
and extracts by the way. The proceeding on this side Dover may, for
aught I know, remain unaltered to the present time; but, with some
trouble, I devised and established such an arrangement as dispensed
with the special messenger to Marseilles, and that in such a manner
as to avoid the delay which had led to the employment of the special
steamer; so that, thenceforth, without trouble or expense to the
journalists, their despatches were received at Dover at least as early
as before, the saving to each paper being, as I was informed by the
editor of one, no less than about £2,000 per annum.
About the same time also we revived an arrangement, which had fallen
into disuse, whereby other foreign correspondence for the newspapers,
from whatever quarter, might be obtained on application at the office
before any delivery could be made to the general public. The only
condition required was that the envelopes used should be of a peculiar
tint, so that in sorting they might easily be selected.
REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.
_Revenue._
Following, as heretofore, that mode of accounting which for the purpose
of comparison it was still necessary to retain, viz., the one in use
at the time when penny postage was established, the results, in round
numbers, may be briefly stated thus:--
The gross revenue increased from £2,700,000 in 1854 to £3,300,000 in
1859; but as the cost of management increased in the same period from
£1,500,000 to somewhat more than £1,900,000, the increase in the net
revenue was somewhat less than £200,000.[155]
_Expenditure: Causes of Increase._
As already shown, the chief increase in the cost of management was
referable to the following causes--increase in the staff, consequent
on the great multiplication of correspondence (by that time seven-fold
its original amount); increased salaries and allowances; the extension
and ramification of the postal system (already affording collection and
delivery to almost every village in the United Kingdom); the expense
of increased facilities and conveniences afforded to the public; the
costly acceleration of the more important mails; and, lastly, increase
in the charge for mail conveyance consequent upon its transfer from
mail-coaches to railway trains. It is obvious that several of these
causes of expenditure have no reference whatever to Penny Postage, but
must have arisen had the old rates been maintained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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