582 POST-OFFICE [AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. XVIII. that in 1874 the ordinary correspondence of France had not recovered its former extent, as it stood in 1868, although a large relative increase is shown in the number of registered letters during 1874 as compared with those of 1868. Taken as a whole, the postal traffic did not fully recover itself until 1878 ; and even then, although the mailed articles exceeded those of the year imme diately preceding by 124,310,199, the gross revenue accruing from letters, newspapers, and parcels showed a diminution of 788,150 as compared with the gross revenue of 1877. Thenceforward the progress is rapid. The chief postal laws now in force are of 6th May 1827, 4th June 1859, 25th January 1873, 3d May 1876, 6th April 1878, 5th February 1879, and 9th April 1881. The comparative postal statistics for all France during the years 1881, 1882, and 1883 stand thus : TABLE XX. Number of Letters and Post-Cards. 1881. 1882. 1883. Tunis and Algiers 1883. 535,541,373 544,193,583 563,524,119 8,550,266 29,589,094 30,710,500 31,394,427 69,068 reply post -cards Foreign letters sent .... Foreign post-cards sent reply post -cards 37,326 34,3(38,985 1,216,948 30,005 48,430 35,377,335 1,390,950 41,184 50,000 36,777,164 1,462,815 53,323 3,492 331,283 10,755 308 Total... 000.783,731 (511,701,982 633,261,848 8,965,172 In 1882 the gross revenue of the entire French postal service was 6,170,146, the total expenditure 5,338,273, and the nett revenue 831,873. In 1883 l the gross revenue amounted to 6,429,101, the expenditure to 5,678,851, and the nett revenue to 750,250. In 1881 the number of post-offices throughout France was 6158 plus 53,182 letter-boxes, making the total number of postal receptacles 59,340. In 1884 the number of post-offices proper had increased to 6565. 2 The aggregate of the postal ami telegraphic staff was 49, 121 persons in 1881, 50,268 in 1882, and 52,636 in 1883. 3 The relative number of letters (including post -cards) to each inhabitant was 16 in 1881 as compared with 27 to each inhabitant in the United States, and with 38 to each in the United Kingdom. In 1882 the proportion was 16 T % as compared with 40^ in Great Britain, in 1883 16 T V an( i 41 1%- respectively. Were it possible to deduct in each case the useless, the merely undesired advertising communi cations, France would contrast with Britain, and still more with America, far less disadvantageously than, on the mere face of the figures, it seems to do. The savings banks system of France, so far as it is connected with the postal service, dates only from 1875, and began then (at first) simply by the use of post-offices as agencies and feeders for the pre-existing banks. Prior to the postal connexion the aggregate of the deposits stood at 22,920,000. In 1877 it reached 32,000,000. Postal savings banks, strictly so called, began only during the year 1881. At the close of 1882* they had 210,712 depositors, with an aggregate deposit of 1,872,938 sterling; and on 31st December 1883 375,838 depositors, with an annual deposit of 3,097,765. A convention lately made between France and Belgium enables depositors in either country to transfer their accounts to the other free of charge. 4 M. Anguste de Malarce has greatly distinguished himself in the promotion of savings banks of all kinds, and most especially in urging the formation of penny banks and school banks. These, however, are not directly connected with the postal service. The union of the telegraph with the post-office dates only from 1878. Prior to the amalgamation the number of telegraph offices was 4561 ; in 1883 it was already increased to 6448. At the former date (1878) the lineal extent of the telegraphs was 57,090 kilometres (35,453 miles) ; it is now (1885) upwards of 87,000 (54,027 miles). The postal administration having begun its new work by obtaining a credit for further extensions and for plant, amounting to nearly 100,000, the tariff was reduced (21st March 1878) to one half penny for each word, with a minimum charge of 5d. 5 In April 1884 France had 5535 subscribers to postal telephonic exchanges (against about 4000 in all Germany at the same date, according to the Revue des Pastes), working under post-office licences of five years duration, and paying (as in Great Britain) a royalty of 10 ]>er cent. The postal telephonic system began in 1879. Up to the close of 1883 the royalties had produced 17,324. At Hheims, Troyes, Roubaix, Tourcoing, and St Quentin the post-office has its own exchanges. The aggregate number of inland postal money orders issued in France in 1881 was 14,626,117. In 1882 the number of inland orders increased to 15,791,774 (value 19,655,117), in 1883 to 16,808,627 (value 20,770,078). As compared with the population, the figures for 1883 show an average of 45W to every 1 Stat. gin.. A. Serv. post., 1883. 2 Archiv fur Post tmd TeJegraphie, 1884, p. 570. 3 Postal Union return for 1883. The figures quoted are exclusive of the boy messengers attached to the telegraphic service.
- Augiiste de Malarce, in Journal des ticonomistes, various years ; Twenty-ninth
Report of the Postmaster-General, 1883, App. 46. s Archiv fiir Post vnd Telegraphie, 1882, 570, 571 ; Journal dcs ticonomisles, ser. 4, ii. 136, 137. 100 inhabitants, the corresponding figure for England being 70^, for the United States 17-n>, and for Italy 14 T V The French parcel post forwarded in 1883 11,494,072 inland parcels, and 944,795 parcels abroad. A word must be added upon a special feature of the French post-office. Many years ago it began to collect books upon postal subjects ; but up to 1878 it had less than 900 volumes, and less than 200 visits to consult them were made in a year. In 1884 there were about 8000 volumes postal, telegraphic, statistical and the annual visits for consulting them averaged 2500. These books are made accessible to the general public as well as to the postal staff, five rooms being set apart for the books, periodicals, and readers. On the whole, it may be said that the recent record of the French postal service is a very honourable record, giving good augury of further improvements to come. Nor is it one of the least honour able items in that record to observe that, when the minister proposed to the chamber of deputies 6 in 1877 an increased vote of 18,200 for the better remuneration of the rural letter-carriers, the chamber voted 69,600 instead. Iliblioaraphy. P. d Almeras, Ri ghment stir le Port des Lettres, 1627 ; Le Quien de la Neufville, Usages ties Pastes, 1730 ; Rowland Hill, Jieport to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the French Post-Office, 1837 ; Annuaire des Pastes, 1850-84 ; M. Du Camp, "De 1 Administration . . . et de 1 Hotel des Postes," in lievtie des Deux Mondes, ser. 3, 1865 ; Jievue des Postes et Telegraphes, 1870-84 ; A. de Rothschild, Histoire de la Poste-aux-Lettres, 1875 ; "Entwickelung des Post- u. Telegraphemvesens in Frankreich," in Archiv f. Post u. Telegraphic, 1882; "Die franzosischen Postsparkassen," and other articles, in L Union Postale, Bern, vols. viii., ix. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, GERMANY, AND ITALY. 1. Austria-Hungary. The Austrian postal system is amongst Austri the oldest on record. Vienna, too, possessed a local letter post and Hunga a parcel post, on the plan of prepayment, as early as May 1772, at which date no city in Germany possessed the like. Curiously enough, this local post was established by a Frenchman (M. Hardy) and managed by a Dutchman (Schooten). 7 Thirteen years after its organization it became merged in the imperial post. The separate postal organizations of the empire (Austria) and of the kingdom (Hungary) date from 1867. In Austria the post-office and the tele graph-office are placed under the control of the minister of com merce, in Hungary under that of the minister of public works. In Austria the department has twenty-one travelling post-offices ; in Hungary it has ten such. 8 Within the limits of the whole Austrian empire the lineal extent of the postal telegraph lines was 20,875 English miles in 1877, and in 1883 32,380 miles. The total number of telegraph stations was 3958. The aggregate number of tele graphic messages in 1877 (Austria-Hungary) was 5,358,544, in 1883 9,974,993. The aggregate of mailed articles in Austria 9 was 357,352,270 in 1877, and in 1878 358,427,000. Deducting from these figures the number of newspapers, book-packets, and parcels, there remains for letters and cards, jointly, an aggregate of 233,801,870 in 1877, and of 232,867,000 in 1878. In 1880 the letters and cards were 245,660,700, in 1881 255,618,100. In Hungary 10 the aggregate of letters and post-cards was 61,064,856 in 1877, in 1878 59,612,000, in 1880 78,080,804, in 1881 82,592,040. The gross revenue from posts and telegraphs stood thus in 1882 (accord ing to the financial estimates for that year) : Austria 2,307,300, Hungary 2,128,065, total 4,435,365, of which sum the postal revenue proper (i.e., letter and parcel services) supplied about two and a half millions. In 1883 the gross revenue of Austria was 2,002,073 ; that of Hungary was 790,839 ; in the same year the respective expenditures were 1,647,373 and 605,185. In Novem ber 1881 a collecting service for bills and invoices was organized. In January 1883 the unit of weight for inland letters was increased from half an ounce to two-thirds of an ounce, the rate being ld. ; and in June of the same year the collection service above-named was made international between Austria-Hungary and the German empire, on the basis of the country of origin retaining all fees, and the country of payment remitting all sums collected by money orders at the usual rate of commission. 11 In 1882 and 1883 the chief postal statistics of both divisions of the empire were as follows - (Table XX I.): Ausi ria. Hun,
- ary.
1882. 1883. 1SS2. 1883. 190,737,600 203,865,600 09,894,598 72,522,335 Inland post-cards Foreign letters sent .... Foreign post-cards sent 43,826,800 31,084,900 4,113,100 48,613,700 33,357,300 4,536,400 16,478,170 1,406,574 153,206 18,037,872 1,580,09413 149,742 3 Totals 209,762,400 290,373,000 87,932,548 92,290,043 B L Union PosMe, ii. 33 sq. ^ Loeper, " Organisation des Postes de Ville," in L Union Postalc, vn. 1 s?- 8 Priewe, " Le Service des Bureaux ambulants," in L Union Postale, vii. 25 si- 9 With a population of 21,944,330 (1877). ID With a population of 15,564,533 (end of 1876). " L Union PostaU, vii. 285, viii. 190. 12 Statistiijue generate du Service postal, 1883, pp. 2-16. is Exclusive of 3,406,134 letters and 797,006 post-cards which passed between
the two countries of Hungary and Germany.