A regular postal network was established by Cyrus the Great in
Persia in about 529 BC, and detailed descriptions of it were written by
the Greek historians Herodotus and Xenophon, both of whom commented on
the speed and efficiency of the horse relays that carried letters to
the furthest reaches of tht. Persian Empire.
By this time, the Chinese had ;~ , highly sophisticated network of pos\:
relays. In the 13th century Marco Polo' described the imperial service
as having over 25,000 relay stations, but as late as 1879 it was still
confined to the court, and the general public were barred from using it
on pain of death. The Chinese were also the first to use paper as a
writing material, by the 2nd century Be. The Romans wrote their letters
on wax
tablets and later on thin sheets of wood,
We usually think of postage stamps as small pieces of printed, gummed
paper; in fact stamps, labels and seals have evolved in response to
various postal hlllctiO. and a wealth of distinctive formats - and
affiliated stationery - now exist. Left: A United States commemorative
celebrates the centenary of its country's stamps in
THE ORIGINS OF POSTAL SERVICES
Almost as soon as writing evolved, communications of a sort came into
being. Postal services were certainly in existence in China as long ago
as 4000 BC and in Egypt and Assyria a millennium later. The Chinese and
Egyptian services were confined to imperial court circles, but in
Assyria the service was open to the mercantile class as well. Not only
are these ancient services well documented in contemporary chronicles,
but actUal examples of letters have survived, in the form of clay
tablets bearing messages written in cuneiform (wedge-shaped) script. An
immense hoard of such correspondence was discovered at Kultepe in
Turkey in 1925 and included clay tablets dating from at least 2000 Be.
Below and right: Cuneiform writing on a Mesopotamian
clay tablet, dating
from the 21st or
20th century BC; this
was celebrated on an
Austrian stamp of
1965 issued for the
Vienna International
Philatelic Exhibition.
Above: Postmen from the Middle Ages to more modern times are depicted on
stamps of Austria, USA, Belgium and France.
Right: A medieval Latin manuscript on another Austrian stamp of the WIPA
series of 1965.
the Italian city states, the universi~ ties and the great religious hous,-!
When state services were institute
these gradually died out or we merged with them.
while the Egyptians favoured papyrus. Parchment was the preferred medium
in Europe until the 15th century, when paper was introduced from China
via Asia Minor and the Byzantine Empire. By the Middle Ages there were
many postal services in Europe, but none was in general use. They
operated almost exclusively for trade guilds (such as the Metzger Post
of Germany, which served the guild of butchers), the merchants of the
Hanseatic League, Venice and
THURN AND TAXIS MONOPOLY ~j
By the 15th century the Holy Rom~ Empire had an efficient postal servicC;'
operated by the Counts of Thurn anc'" Taxis, whose range extended from
thql Baltic to the Adriatic and from Polan41 to the Straits of
Gibraltar. The servicC'! j survived into the era of adhesive! stamps,
and issued these in variou.~ states of Germany until 1867, whe~j the
Thurn and Taxis family (which hadl backed Austria, the losing side, in
thd~
