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ch connected more than 6 000 abbeys monasteries and churches the best organization however was created by the knights templar 40 failed verification 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 41 thurn und taxis edit in 1505 holy roman emperor maximilian i established 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 42 43 44 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 45 46 47 48 the thurn und taxis family then known as tassis had operated postal services between italian city states from 1290 onward postmaster anselm franz 2nd prince of thurn and taxis 1681 1739 still today part of the logo of the white pages in many countries for 500 years 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 maximilian karl 6th prince of thurn and taxis 1802 1871 last postmaster 1 july 1867 the state of prussia had to make a compensation payment of three million thalers reinvested by helene von thurn taxis daughter in law of the last postmaster maximilian karl 6th prince of thurn and taxis into real estate most of it continuing to exist today johannes 11th prince of thurn taxis 1926 1990 heir of the postal fortune postal reforms edit the penny black the world s first adhesive postage stamp issued in the united kingdom in 1840 see also uniform fourpenny post and uniform penny post in the united kingdom prior to 1840 letters were paid for by 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 49 in his proposal hill also called for official pre printed envelopes and adhesive postage stamps as alternative ways of getting 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 modern transport and technology edit the first airmail service in the german empire 1912 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 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 edit 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 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 50 51 organization edit some countries have organized their mail services as public limited liability corporations without 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 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 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 an automated postal machine of the united states postal service in webster texas 2009 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 52 some methods of airmail proved ineffective however including 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 payment edit 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 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 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 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 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 a form of meter label and thus do not need to be cancelled privacy and censorship edit main article postal censorship mobile steaming equipment the steamboat used by the state security of the former czechoslovakia to unstick mail envelopes for correspondence surveillance during the cold war 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 53 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 the recording of identities of sender and recipient 54 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 55 and the universal declaration of human rights 54 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 the mail and packages often surveyed and their contents sometimes edited out or even in citation needed there have been cases over the millennia of governments opening and copying or photographing the contents of private mail 54 56 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 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 while in most cases mail censorship is exceptional military mail to and from soldiers is often subject to surveillance 57 the mail is censored to prevent leaking tactical secrets such as troop movements or weather conditions 57 depending on the country civilian mail containing military secrets can also be monitored and censored 57 mail sent to and from inmates in jails or prisons within the united states is subject to opening and review by jail or prison staff to determine if the mail has any criminal action dictated or provides means for an escape the only mail that is not able to be read is attorney client mail which is covered under the attorney client confidentiality laws in the united states 58 rise of electronic correspondence edit newer forms of communication such as the telegraph telephone telex facsimile and email have reduced the attractiveness of paper mail for many applications these modern alternatives have some advantages in addition to their speed they may be more secure e g because the general public cannot learn the address of the sender or recipient from the envelope and occasionally traditional items of mail may fail to arrive e g due to vandalism to mailboxes unfriendly pets and adverse weather conditions mail carriers due to perceived hazards or inconveniences may refuse officially or otherwise to deliver mail to a particular address for instance if there is no clear path to the door or mailbox on the other hand traditional mail avoids the possibility of computer malfunctions and malware and the recipient does not need to print it out if they wish to have a paper copy though scanning is required to make a digital copy physical mail is still widely used in business and personal communications for such reasons as legal requirements for signatures requirements of etiquette and the requirement to enclose small physical objects since the advent of email which is almost always much faster the postal system has come to be referred to in internet slang by the retronym snail mail occasionally the term white mail has also been used as a neutral term for postal mail citation needed mainly during the 20th century experimentation with hybrid mail has combined electronic and paper delivery electronic mechanisms include telegram telex facsimile fax email and short message service sms there have been methods which have combined mail and some of these newer methods such as temporary emails that combine facsimile transmission with overnight delivery 59 60 these vehicles commonly use a mechanical or electro mechanical standardised writing typing that on the one hand makes for more efficient communication while on the other hand makes impossible characteristics and practices that traditionally were in conventional mail such as calligraphy this epoch when is undoubtedly mainly dominated by mechanical writing with a general use of no more of half a dozen standard typographic fonts from standard keyboards citation needed however the increased use of typewritten or computer printed letters for personal communication and the advent of email have sparked renewed interest in calligraphy as a letter has become more of a special event long before email and computer printed letters however decorated envelopes rubber stamps and artistamps formed part of the medium of mail art 61 in the 2000s decade with the advent of ebay and other online auction sites and online stores postal services in industrialized nations have seen a major shift to item shipping this has been seen as a boost to the system s usage in the wake of lower paper mail volume due to the accessibility of email online post offices have emerged to give recipients a means of receiving traditional correspondence mail in a scanned electronic format continued drops in letter volume led postnord to stop delivering letters in denmark at the end of 2025 and remove mailboxes from streets collecting edit le philateliste by françois barraud 1929 postage stamps are also object of a particular form of collecting stamp collecting has been a very popular hobby in some cases when demand greatly exceeds supply their commercial value on this specific market may become enormously greater than face value even after use for some postal services the sale of stamps to collectors who will never use them is a significant source of revenue for example stamps from tokelau south georgia south sandwich islands tristan da cunha niuafoʻou and many others stamp collecting is commonly known as philately although strictly the latter term refers to the study of stamps another form of collecting regards postcards a document written on a single robust sheet of paper usually decorated with photographic pictures or artistic drawings on one of the sides and short messages on a small part of the other side that also contained the space for the address in strict philatelic usage the postcard is to be distinguished from the postal card which has a pre printed postage on the card the fact that this communication is visible by other than the receiver often causes the messages to be written in jargon letters are often studied as an example of literature and also in biography in the case of a famous person a portion of the new testament of the bible is composed of the apostle paul s epistles to christian congregations in various parts of the roman empire see below for a list of famous letters a...
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