Page:The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago.djvu/131

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SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS.
63
  1. That, owing to the great simplicity of the arrangements which might be adopted under these conditions, the present establishment of the Post Office, with a slight addition, would suffice for a four-fold increase of business.
  2. That this increase of business would lead to greatly increased facilities of communication, as, for example, two departures and two arrivals of the London mails per day.
  3. That these increased facilities, together with the greatly reduced charges, would have the effect of increasing the number of chargeable letters, in all probability, at least 5¼-fold; which increase (the number of franks and newspapers continuing as at present) would produce the four-fold increase of business, for which, as it has been shown, the present establishment of the Post Office, with a slight addition, would suffice.
  4. That the necessary cost of primary distribution is not the present actual cost, viz., 84 hundredths of a penny, but only 32 hundredths of a penny; the difference, viz., 52 hundredths of a penny, arising from the employment of the Post Office in levying an excessive tax, and from the consequent expensiveness of arrangements and restriction of correspondence.
  5. That in consequence of the great reduction in the necessary cost of primary distribution which would be effected by the proposed arrangements, the proposed low rate of postage would yield a profit