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73-555: Mail is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. Mail or The Mail may also refer to: Mail Postal authorities often have functions aside from transporting letters. In some countries, a postal, telegraph and telephone (PTT) service oversees the postal system, in addition to telephone and telegraph systems. Some countries' postal systems allow for savings accounts and handle applications for passports . The Universal Postal Union (UPU), established in 1874, includes 192 member countries and sets

146-504: A legal monopoly . The worldwide postal system constituting the individual national postal systems of the world's self-governing states is coordinated by the Universal Postal Union , which among other things sets international postage rates, defines standards for postage stamps and operates the system of international reply coupons . In most countries a system of codes has been created (referred to as ZIP codes in

219-444: A Persian subject, and it may be that the young Herodotus heard local eyewitness accounts of events within the empire and of Persian preparations for the invasion of Greece , including the movements of the local fleet under the command of Artemisia I of Caria . Inscriptions recently discovered at Halicarnassus indicate that Artemesia's grandson Lygdamis negotiated with a local assembly to settle disputes over seized property, which

292-637: A block of dots as a two-dimensional barcode . The "block of dots" method allows for the encoding of proof of payment of postage, exact routing for delivery, and other features. The ordinary mail service was improved in the 20th century with the use of planes for a quicker delivery. The world's first scheduled airmail post service took place in the United Kingdom between the London suburbs of Hendon and Windsor, Berkshire , on 9 September 1911. Some methods of airmail proved ineffective, however, including

365-473: A boy living on the island of Samos, to which he had fled with his family from the oppressions of Lygdamis, tyrant of Halicarnassus and grandson of Artemisia. Panyassis , the epic poet related to Herodotus, is reported to have taken part in a failed uprising. The Suda also states that Herodotus later returned home to lead the revolt that eventually overthrew the tyrant. Due to recent discoveries of inscriptions at Halicarnassus dated to about Herodotus's time, it

438-622: A form of meter label and thus do not need to be cancelled.) Documents should generally not be read by anyone other than the addressee; for example, in the United States of America it is a violation of federal law for anyone other than the addressee and the government to open mail. There are exceptions however: executives often assign secretaries or assistants the task of handling their mail; and postcards do not require opening and can be read by anyone. For mail contained within an envelope, there are legal provisions in some jurisdictions allowing

511-664: A historical topic more in keeping with the Greek world-view: focused on the context of the polis or city-state. The interplay of civilizations was more relevant to Greeks living in Anatolia, such as Herodotus himself, for whom life within a foreign civilization was a recent memory. Before the Persian crisis, history had been represented among the Greeks only by local or family traditions. The "Wars of Liberation" had given to Herodotus

584-404: A literary critic of Augustan Rome , listed seven predecessors of Herodotus, describing their works as simple unadorned accounts of their own and other cities and people, Greek or foreign, including popular legends, sometimes melodramatic and naïve, often charming – all traits that can be found in the work of Herodotus himself. Modern historians regard the chronology as uncertain, but according to

657-751: A postal system in the Empire, appointing Franz von Taxis to run it. This system, originally the Kaiserliche Reichspost , is often considered the first modern postal service in the world, which initiated a revolution in communication in Europe. The system combined contemporary technical and organization means to create a stable transcontinental service which was also the first to offer (fee-based) public access. The Thurn und Taxis family, then known as Tassis, had operated postal services between Italian city-states from 1290 onward. For 500 years

730-636: A private mail service. Notably, the Cistercians had one which connected more than 6,000 abbeys , monasteries , and churches. The best organization, however, was created by the Knights Templar . In 1716, Correos y Telégrafos was established in Spain as public mail service, available to all citizens. Delivery postmen were first employed in 1756 and post boxes were installed firstly in 1762. In 1505, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I established

803-587: A small Telephone Boutique next to a historic Postal mansion his ancestors used to go to centuries earlier. Several European Post Carriers like Deutsche Post or Österreichische Post continue to use the Thurn & Taxis Post Horn in their company logo just like the global Phone Book of the World based in the old Postal mansion of King Louis XIV in Paris. In the United Kingdom, prior to 1840 letters were paid for by

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876-585: A suspected criminal conspiracy, although black chambers (largely in the past, though there is apparently some continuance of their use today) opened extralegally. The mail service may be allowed to open the mail if neither addressee nor sender can be located, in order to attempt to locate either. Mail service may also open the mail to inspect if it contains materials that are hazardous to transport or violate local laws. Herodotus Herodotus ( Ancient Greek : Ἡρόδοτος , romanized :  Hēródotos ; c.  484  – c.  425 BC)

949-432: A title conferred on him by the ancient Roman orator Cicero , and the " Father of Lies " by others. The Histories primarily cover the lives of prominent kings and famous battles such as Marathon , Thermopylae , Artemisium , Salamis , Plataea , and Mycale . His work deviates from the main topics to provide a cultural, ethnographical , geographical, and historiographical background that forms an essential part of

1022-696: A version of the Histories written by "Herodotus of Thurium", and some passages in the Histories have been interpreted as proof that he wrote about Magna Graecia from personal experience there (IV, 15,99; VI, 127). According to Ptolemaeus Chennus , a late source summarized in the Library of Photius , Plesirrhous the Thessalian, the hymnographer, was the eromenos of Herodotus and his heir. This account has also led some historians to assume Herodotus died childless. Intimate knowledge of some events in

1095-520: A young Thucydides happened to be in the assembly with his father, and burst into tears during the recital. Herodotus observed prophetically to the boy's father: "Your son's soul yearns for knowledge." Eventually, Thucydides and Herodotus became close enough for both to be interred in Thucydides's tomb in Athens. Such at least was the opinion of Marcellinus in his Life of Thucydides . According to

1168-640: Is consistent with a tyrant under pressure. His name is not mentioned later in the tribute list of the Athenian Delian League , indicating that there might well have been a successful uprising against him some time before 454 BC. Herodotus wrote his Histories in the Ionian dialect , in spite of being born in a Dorian settlement. According to the Suda , Herodotus learned the Ionian dialect as

1241-606: Is derived from Old French poste , which ultimately stems from the past participle of the Latin verb ponere 'to lay down or place'. So in the U.K., the Royal Mail delivers the post , while in North America both the U.S. Postal Service and Canada Post deliver the mail . The term email , short for "electronic mail", first appeared in the 1970s. The term snail mail is a retronym to distinguish it from

1314-491: Is generally assumed that he died not long afterwards, possibly before his sixtieth year. Herodotus would have made his researches known to the larger world through oral recitations to a public crowd. John Marincola writes in his introduction to the Penguin edition of the Histories that there are certain identifiable pieces in the early books of Herodotus's work which could be labeled as "performance pieces". These portions of

1387-926: Is in Egypt , where Pharaohs used couriers to send out decrees throughout the territory of the state (2400 BCE). The earliest surviving piece of mail is also Egyptian, dating to 255 BCE. The first credible claim for the development of a real postal system comes from Ancient Persia . The best-documented claim ( Xenophon ) attributes the invention to the Persian King Cyrus the Great (550 BCE), who mandated that every province in his kingdom would organize reception and delivery of post to each of its citizens. Other writers credit his successor Darius I of Persia (521 BCE). Other sources claim much earlier dates for an Assyrian postal system, with credit given to Hammurabi (1700 BCE) and Sargon II (722 BCE). Mail may not have been

1460-809: Is now known that the Ionic dialect was used in Halicarnassus in some official documents, so there is no need to assume (like the Suda ) that he must have learned the dialect elsewhere. The Suda is the only source placing Herodotus as the heroic liberator of his birthplace, casting doubt upon the veracity of that romantic account. As Herodotus himself reveals, Halicarnassus, though a Dorian city, had ended its close relations with its Dorian neighbours after an unseemly quarrel (I, 144), and it had helped pioneer Greek trade with Egypt (II, 178). It was, therefore, an outward-looking, international-minded port within

1533-609: Is on account of the many strange stories and the folk-tales he reported that his critics have branded him "The Father of Lies". Even his own contemporaries found reason to scoff at his achievement. In fact, one modern scholar has wondered whether Herodotus left his home in Greek Anatolia , migrating westwards to Athens and beyond, because his own countrymen had ridiculed his work, a circumstance possibly hinted at in an epitaph said to have been dedicated to Herodotus at one of his three supposed resting places, Thuria : Herodotus

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1606-535: The Alcmaeonids , a clan whose history is featured frequently in his writing. According to Plutarch , Herodotus was granted a financial reward by the Athenian assembly in recognition of his work. Plutarch, using Diyllus as a source, says this was 10 talents . In 443 BC or shortly afterwards, he migrated to Thurii , in modern Calabria , as part of an Athenian-sponsored colony . Aristotle refers to

1679-569: The Byzantine Suda , an 11th-century encyclopedia which possibly took its information from traditional accounts. Still, the challenge is great: The data are so few – they rest upon such late and slight authority; they are so improbable or so contradictory, that to compile them into a biography is like building a house of cards, which the first breath of criticism will blow to the ground. Still, certain points may be approximately fixed ... Herodotus was, according to his own statement, at

1752-491: The Euphrates to Babylon . For some reason, possibly associated with local politics, he subsequently found himself unpopular in Halicarnassus, and sometime around 447 BC, migrated to Periclean Athens  – a city whose people and democratic institutions he openly admired (V, 78). Athens was also the place where he came to know the local topography (VI, 137; VIII, 52–55), as well as leading citizens such as

1825-576: The Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), who had relay stations every 30 li (about 15km) along major routes. The Tang dynasty (618 to 907 AD) operated a recorded 1,639 posthouses, including maritime offices, employing around 20,000 people. The system was administered by the Ministry of War and private correspondence was forbidden from the network. The Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644) sought a postal system to deliver mail quickly, securely, and cheaply. Adequate speed

1898-772: The Peloponnesian War on the abduction of some prostitutes – a mocking reference to Herodotus, who reported the Persians' account of their wars with Greece , beginning with the rapes of the mythical heroines Io , Europa , Medea , and Helen . Similarly, the Athenian historian Thucydides dismissed Herodotus as a story-teller. Thucydides, who had been trained in rhetoric , became the model for subsequent prose-writers as an author who seeks to appear firmly in control of his material, whereas with his frequent digressions Herodotus appeared to minimize (or possibly disguise) his authorial control. Moreover, Thucydides developed

1971-576: The Persian Empire , and the historian's family could well have had contacts in other countries under Persian rule, facilitating his travels and his researches. Herodotus's eyewitness accounts indicate that he traveled in Egypt in association with Athenians, probably sometime after 454 BC or possibly earlier, after an Athenian fleet had assisted the uprising against Persian rule in 460–454 BC. He probably traveled to Tyre next and then down

2044-581: The Suda , he was buried in Macedonian Pella and in the agora in Thurii. Herodotus announced the purpose and scope of his work at the beginning of his Histories: Here are presented the results of the inquiry carried out by Herodotus of Halicarnassus. The purpose is to prevent the traces of human events from being erased by time, and to preserve the fame of the important and remarkable achievements produced by both Greeks and non-Greeks; among

2117-475: The U.S. Postal Service authorised the first tests of a secure system of sending digital franks via the Internet to be printed out on a PC printer, obviating the necessity to license a dedicated franking machine and allowing companies with smaller mail programs to make use of the option; this was later expanded to test the use of personalized postage. The service provided by the U.S. Postal Service in 2003 allows

2190-648: The Wodeyar dynasty (1399–1947) of the Kingdom of Mysore used mail service for espionage purposes thereby acquiring knowledge related to matters that took place at great distances. By the end of the 18th century, a postal system in India was in operation. Later this system underwent complete modernization when the British Raj established its control over most of India. The Post Office Act XVII of 1837 provided that

2263-491: The 17th century, the word mail began to appear as a reference for a bag that contained letters: "bag full of letter" (1654). Over the next hundred years the word mail began to be applied strictly to the letters themselves and the sack as the mailbag . In the 19th century, the British typically used mail to refer to letters being sent abroad (i.e. on a ship) and post to refer to letters for domestic delivery. The word Post

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2336-628: The August Revolution, the Post and Wireless Office was renamed the Post Office under the Ministry of Transportation. In 1955, the Post Office was upgraded to the Ministry of Post. Some Chinese sources claim mail or postal systems dating back to the Xia or Shang dynasties , which would be the oldest mailing service in the world. The earliest credible system of couriers was initiated by

2409-684: The Governor-General of India in Council had the exclusive right of conveying letters by post for hire within the territories of the East India Company. The mails were available to certain officials without charge, which became a controversial privilege as the years passed. On this basis the Indian Post Office was established on October 1, 1837. The first well-documented postal service was that of Rome . Organized at

2482-489: The United States Postal Service's experiment with rocket mail . Receipt services were made available in order to grant the sender a confirmation of effective delivery. Before about the mid-nineteenth century, in regions where postal systems existed, the payment models varied, but most mail was sent unpaid requiring the recipient to pay the postage fee. In some regions a partial payment was made by

2555-490: The United States, postcodes in the United Kingdom and Australia, eircodes in Ireland and postal codes in most other countries) in order to facilitate the automation of operations. This also includes placing additional marks on the address portion of the letter or mailed object, called "bar coding". Bar coding of mail for delivery is usually expressed either by a series of vertical bars, usually called POSTNET coding or

2628-459: The agent usually indicates by means of a cancellation that it is no longer valid for pre-payment of postage. The exceptions are when the agent forgets or neglects to cancel the mailpiece, for stamps that are pre-cancelled and thus do not require cancellation and for, in most cases, metered mail. (The "personalized stamps" authorized by the USPS and manufactured by Zazzle and other companies are in fact

2701-407: The ancient account, these predecessors included Dionysius of Miletus , Charon of Lampsacus, Hellanicus of Lesbos , Xanthus of Lydia and, the best attested of them all, Hecataeus of Miletus . Of these, only fragments of Hecataeus's works survived, and the authenticity of these is debatable, but they provide a glimpse into the kind of tradition within which Herodotus wrote his own Histories . It

2774-591: The audience. It was conventional in Herodotus's day for authors to "publish" their works by reciting them at popular festivals. According to Lucian , Herodotus took his finished work straight from Anatolia to the Olympic Games and read the entire Histories to the assembled spectators in one sitting, receiving rapturous applause at the end of it. According to a very different account by an ancient grammarian, Herodotus refused to begin reading his work at

2847-458: The beginning of his work, a native of Halicarnassus in Anatolia , and it is generally accepted that he was born there around 485 BC. The Suda says his family was influential, that he was the son of Lyxes and Dryo and the brother of Theodorus, and that he was also related to Panyassis – an epic poet of the time. Halicarnassus was then within the Persian Empire , making Herodotus

2920-512: The conditions for physical mail. Email (and in recent years social networking sites) became a fierce competitor to physical mail systems, but online auctions and Internet shopping opened new business opportunities as people often get items bought online through the mail. Modern mail is organized by national and privatized services, which are reciprocally connected by international regulations, organizations and international agreements. Paper letters and parcels can be sent to almost any country in

2993-501: The enormous funding necessary to rapidly industrialize Japan in the late 19th century. The postal service was one of Korea's first attempts at modernization. The Joseon Post Office was established in 1884. Another important postal service was created in the Islamic world by the caliph Mu'awiyya; the service was called barid , for the name of the towers built to protect the roads by which couriers travelled. By 3000 BC, Egypt

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3066-439: The festival of Olympia until some clouds offered him a bit of shade – by which time the assembly had dispersed. (Hence the proverbial expression "Herodotus and his shade" to describe someone who misses an opportunity through delay.) Herodotus's recitation at Olympia was a favourite theme among ancient writers, and there is another interesting variation on the story to be found in the Suda : that of Photius and Tzetzes , in which

3139-422: The first genuinely historical inspiration felt by a Greek. These wars showed him that there was a corporate life, higher than that of the city, of which the story might be told; and they offered to him as a subject the drama of the collision between East and West. With him, the spirit of history was born into Greece; and his work, called after the nine Muses, was indeed the first utterance of Clio . Though Herodotus

3212-505: The first years of the Peloponnesian War (VI, 91; VII, 133, 233; IX, 73) suggests that he returned to Athens, in which case it is possible that he died there during an outbreak of the plague. It is also possible he died in Macedonia instead, after obtaining the patronage of the court there; or else he died back in Thurii. There is nothing in the Histories that can be dated to later than 430 BC with any certainty, and it

3285-405: The franks to be printed out on special adhesive-backed labels. In 2004 the Royal Mail in the United Kingdom introduced its SmartStamp Internet-based system, allowing printing on ordinary adhesive labels or envelopes. Similar systems are being considered by postal administrations around the world. When the pre-paid envelope or package is accepted into the mail by an agent of the postal service,

3358-400: The last postmaster, Maximilian Karl, 6th Prince of Thurn and Taxis , into real estate, most of it continuing to exist today. The Phone Book of the World has its roots in the long history of the avant-garde telecommunications family Thurn & Taxis. The directory is the result of Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn & Taxis transmitting PTT culture to a student and helping with the opening of

3431-428: The mail and packages often surveyed and their contents sometimes edited out (or even in). There have been cases over the millennia of governments opening and copying or photographing the contents of private mail. Subject to the laws in the relevant jurisdiction, correspondence may be openly or covertly opened, or the contents determined via some other method, by the police or other authorities in some cases relating to

3504-477: The mail service. Foreign observers, such as Marco Polo , have attested to the efficiency of this early postal system. Each station was maintained by up to twenty five families. Work for postal service counted as military service. The system was still operational in 18th century when 64 stations were required for a message to cross Mongolia from the Altai Mountains to China. The modern Japanese system

3577-424: The matters covered is, in particular, the cause of the hostilities between Greeks and non-Greeks. His record of the achievements of others was an achievement in itself, though the extent of it has been debated. Herodotus's place in history and his significance may be understood according to the traditions within which he worked. His work is the earliest Greek prose to have survived intact. Dionysius of Halicarnassus ,

3650-603: The message carrier (called Chapar ) would ride to the next post, whereupon he would swap his horse with a fresh one for maximum performance and delivery speed. Herodotus described the system in this way: "It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day's journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed". The verse prominently features on New York's James Farley Post Office , although it uses

3723-612: The narrative and provides readers with a wellspring of additional information. Herodotus was criticized in ancient times for his inclusion of "legends and fanciful accounts" in his work. The contemporaneous historian Thucydides accused him of making up stories for entertainment. He retorted that he reported what he could see and was told. A sizable portion of the Histories has since been confirmed by modern historians and archaeologists . Modern scholars generally turn to Herodotus's own writing for reliable information about his life, supplemented with ancient yet much later sources, such as

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3796-715: The postal business based in Brussels and in Frankfurt was passed from one generation to another. Following the abolition of the Empire in 1806, the Thurn-und-Taxis Post system continued as a private organization into the postage stamp era before being absorbed into the postal system of the new German Empire after 1871. 1867 July 1 the State of Prussia had to make a compensation payment of 3.000.000 Thalers reinvested by Helene von Thurn & Taxis , daughter-in-law of

3869-454: The primary mission of this postal service, however. The role of the system as an intelligence gathering apparatus is well documented, and the service was (later) called angariae , a term that in time came to indicate a tax system. The Old Testament ( Esther , VIII) makes mention of this system: Ahasuerus , king of Medes , used couriers for communicating his decisions. The Persian system worked using stations (called Chapar-Khaneh ), whence

3942-411: The public. Common chariots called Dagana were sometimes used as mail chariots in ancient India. Couriers were used militarily by kings and local rulers to deliver information through runners and other carriers. The postmaster, the head of the intelligence service, was responsible for ensuring the maintenance of the courier system. Couriers were also used to deliver personal letters. In South India ,

4015-428: The quicker email. Various dates have been given for its first use. The practice of communication by written documents carried by an intermediary from one person or place to another almost certainly dates back nearly to the invention of writing . However, the development of formal postal systems occurred much later. The first documented use of an organized courier service for the dissemination of written documents

4088-417: The recipient and the cost was determined by the distance from sender to recipient and the number of sheets of paper rather than by a countrywide flat rate with weight restrictions. Sir Rowland Hill reformed the postal system based on the concepts of penny postage and prepayment. In his proposal, Hill also called for official pre-printed envelopes and adhesive postage stamps as alternative ways of getting

4161-641: The recording of identities of sender and recipient. The privacy of correspondence is guaranteed by the constitutions of Mexico , Colombia , Brazil and Venezuela , and is alluded to in the European Convention on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . The control of the contents inside private citizens' mail is censorship and concerns social, political, and legal aspects of civil rights . International mail and packages are subject to customs control, with

4234-468: The research seem independent and "almost detachable", so that they might have been set aside by the author for the purposes of an oral performance. The intellectual matrix of the 5th century, Marincola suggests, comprised many oral performances in which philosophers would dramatically recite such detachable pieces of their work. The idea was to criticize previous arguments on a topic and emphatically and enthusiastically insert their own in order to win over

4307-584: The rules for international mail exchanges as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations . The word mail comes from the Middle English word male , referring to a travelling bag or pack. It was spelled in that manner until the 17th century and is distinct from the word male . The French have a similar word, malle , for a trunk or large box, and mála is the Irish term for a bag. In

4380-538: The sender to pay for the postage, at a time when prepayment was optional, which led to the invention of the postage stamp, the Penny Black . The postal system was important in the development of modern transportation. Railways carried railway post offices . During the 20th century, air mail became the transport of choice for inter-continental mail. Postmen started to use mail trucks . The handling of mail became increasingly automated. The Internet came to change

4453-435: The sender. Today, worldwide, the most common method of prepaying postage is by buying an adhesive postage stamp to be applied to the envelope before mailing; a much less common method is to use a postage-prepaid envelope . Franking is a method of creating postage-prepaid envelopes under licence using a special machine. They are used by companies with large mail programs, such as banks and direct mail companies. In 1998,

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4526-474: The son of Sphynx lies; in Ionic history without peer; a Dorian born, who fled from slander's brand and made in Thuria his new native land. Yet it was in Athens where his most formidable contemporary critics could be found. In 425 BC, which is about the time that Herodotus is thought by many scholars to have died, the Athenian comic dramatist Aristophanes created The Acharnians , in which he blames

4599-433: The time of Augustus Caesar (62 BCE – 14 CE), the service was called cursus publicus and was provided with light carriages ( rhedæ ) pulled by fast horses. By the time of Diocletian , a parallel service was established with two-wheeled carts ( birotæ ) pulled by oxen . This service was reserved for government correspondence. Yet another service for citizens was later added. In 1802, the first Vietnamese postal service

4672-480: The translation "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds". The economic growth and political stability under the Mauryan Empire (322–185 BCE) stimulated sustained development of civil infrastructure in ancient India . The Mauryans developed early Indian mail service as well as public wells, rest houses, and other facilities for

4745-487: The transport of foreign and domestic tribute specifically and the conduct of trade in general. By the end of Kublai Khan's rule, there were more than 1400 postal stations in China alone, which in turn had at their disposal about 50,000 horses, 1,400 oxen, 6,700 mules, 400 carts, 6,000 boats, more than 200 dogs, and 1,150 sheep. The stations were 25 to 65 km (16 to 40 mi) apart and had reliable attendants working for

4818-561: The whole territory of his empire the system used by Franks in northern Gaul and connected this service with that of missi dominici . In the mid-11th century, flax traders known as the Cairo Geniza Merchants from Fustat , Egypt wrote about using a postal service known as the kutubi. The kutubi system managed routes between the cities of Jerusalem, Ramla, Tyre, Ascalon, Damascus, Aleppo, and Fustat with year-round, regular mail delivery. Many religious orders had

4891-489: The world relatively easily and cheaply. The Internet has made the process of sending letter-like messages nearly instantaneous, and in many cases and situations correspondents use email where they previously would have used letters. The volume of paper mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service has declined by more than 15% since its peak at 213 billion pieces per annum in 2006. Some countries have organized their mail services as public limited liability corporations without

4964-575: Was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus , part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum , Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria , Italy. He wrote the Histories , a detailed account of the Greco-Persian Wars , and was the first writer to apply a scientific method to historical events. He has been described as " The Father of History ",

5037-454: Was always a problem, because of the slow overland transportation system, and underfunding. Its network had 1,936 posthouses every 60 li along major routes, with fresh horses available every 10 li between them. The Qing operated 1,785 posthouses throughout their lands. More efficient, however, was the system linking the international settlements, centered around Shanghai and the Treaty ports. It

5110-478: Was developed in the mid-19th century, closely copying European models. Japan was highly innovative in developing the world's largest and most successful postal savings system and later a postal life insurance system as well. Postmasters play a key role in linking the Japanese political system to local politics. The postmasters are high prestige, and are often hereditary. To a large extent, the postal system generated

5183-505: Was established under the Nguyen dynasty , under the Ministry of Rites. During the Nguyen dynasty, official documents were transported by horse and other primitive means to stations built about 25-30 kilometers apart. In 1904, three wireless communication offices were established, and in early 1906 they were merged with the postal service to form the Post and Wireless Office. In 1945, after

5256-611: Was the main communication system for China's international trade. Genghis Khan installed an empire-wide messenger and postal station system named Örtöö within the Mongol Empire . During the Yuan dynasty under Kublai Khan , this system also covered the territory of China. Postal stations were used not only for the transmission and delivery of official mail but were also available for travelling officials, military men, and foreign dignitaries. These stations aided and facilitated

5329-438: Was using homing pigeons for pigeon post , taking advantage of a singular quality of this bird, which when taken far from its nest is able to find its way home due to a particularly developed sense of orientation. Messages were then tied around the legs of the pigeon, which was freed and could reach its original nest. By the 19th century, homing pigeons were used extensively for military communications. Charlemagne extended to

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