Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Geschichte des britischen Postamts
Go deeper: the whole of Geschichte des britischen Postamts
About 6 h 30 min to read.Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who enjoy how institutions grow, anyone curious about the roots of the stamp and the mail coach, and students of economic or British history.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
This is a history of how Britain came to have a national postal service. It was written by Joseph Clarence Hemmeon, an economist, and published in the early twentieth century as a scholarly study. Hemmeon is less interested in famous letters than in the machine behind them: who ran the posts, who paid for them, who was allowed to carry a letter, and what the Crown took in profit.
The book follows the post from its start as a way for the monarch to move orders, through its opening to ordinary people in the seventeenth century, to the reforms of the nineteenth century that brought the penny stamp. You get the main turning points in order, and you see why each change came about. Along the way you meet a question that still matters today. Is a post office a public service, a business, or a source of tax? Let us begin with the earliest riders, whose main task was carrying royal and official letters.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1The post begins as the king's messengerFree
- 2The Crown opens the posts to the public
- 3A monopoly brings profit and quarrels
- 4Better roads and coaches speed the mail
- 5High rates and free letters distort the system
- 6What the post office teaches about public service
Punkt 1 von 6
The post begins as the king's messenger
The story starts with the needs of government. A royal official, known as the Master of the Posts, oversaw the system. Under Henry VIII, Brian Tuke held that kind of office.
The method was simple. Along the main roads, towns or inns kept horses ready at set points called post stages. A rider carried the royal packet to the next stage, handed it on, and a fresh horse took it further. Speed matters, especially when the king needs news from the battlefield.
This early post was not a service for the public. Merchants and gentry who wanted to send letters used their own servants, friends or carriers who happened to be travelling. The royal posts existed to carry state business, and the Crown paid for them out of its own funds.
Hemmeon treats this stage as the root of everything that follows. The post began as part of the machinery of rule, and that origin explains why the state later claimed the right to control all letters. It also explains why governments kept watching what passed through the mail. For a modern reader, it is a useful reminder that the friendly postbox grew out of a tool of power.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of Geschichte des britischen Postamts
About 6 h 30 min to read.Questions about Geschichte des britischen Postamts
What is The History of the British Post Office about?
It traces the British postal system from the royal messengers of the Tudor age to the reforms of the nineteenth century, looking at who ran the posts, how they were paid for, and how rates and service changed.
Who was Joseph Clarence Hemmeon?
Hemmeon was an economist who wrote this study of the British post in the early twentieth century. It was published in a university series of economic studies and looks at the post mainly through finance and administration.
Who started the penny post and the Penny Black?
Rowland Hill argued for cheap, uniform postage paid in advance by the sender. His plan leads to penny postage in 1840, with stamped paper or envelopes allowed for payment.
Is The History of the British Post Office hard to read?
No. The first four chapters follow the post's growth in time order, while later chapters explore particular parts of the service. The account sometimes shifts between subjects or gathers dry detail, but you can read its chapters on roads, rates and other topics one at a time.
Why did the Crown control the post?
Rulers wanted to move their orders quickly, to watch the mail, and to raise money. A monopoly on carrying letters gave them all three, which is why the state held on to it for so long.
Cite this edition
Hemmeon, Joseph Clarence. The History of the British Post Office. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-history-of-the-british-post-office.
Hemmeon, J. C. (2026). The history of the British Post Office. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-history-of-the-british-post-office (Original work published 1912)
Hemmeon, Joseph Clarence. The History of the British Post Office. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-history-of-the-british-post-office.
@book{hemmeon2026history,
author = {Hemmeon, Joseph Clarence},
title = {The History of the British Post Office},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-history-of-the-british-post-office},
note = {First published 1912}
}
