The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal systems have generally been established as a government monopoly, with a fee on the article prepaid. Proof of payment is usually in the form of an adhesive postage stamp, but a postage meter is also used for bulk mailing.
Indian postal systems for efficient military and governmental communications had developed long before the arrival of Europeans. When the Portuguese, Dutch, French, Danish and British conquered the Marathas who had already defeated the Mughals, their postal systems existed alongside those of many somewhat independent states. The British East India Company gradually annexed the other powers on the sub-continent and brought into existence a British administrative system over most of modern-day India, with a need to establish and maintain both official and commercial mail systems.
This is a partial timeline of significant events in postal history, including dates and events relating to postage stamps.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the modern Russian Federation.
This is an overview of the postage stamps and postal history of Australia.
India Post is an Indian government-operated postal system in India, and is the trade name of the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications. Generally known as the Post Office, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Warren Hastings had taken initiative under East India Company to start the Postal Service in the country in 1766. It was initially established under the name "Company Mail". It was later modified into a service under the Crown in 1854 by Lord Dalhousie. Dalhousie introduced uniform postage rates and helped to pass the India Post Office Act 1854 which significantly improved upon 1837 Post Office act which had introduced regular post offices in India. It created the position Director General of Post for the whole country.
Guernsey Post is the postal service for the island of Guernsey, Channel Islands. It includes a Philatelic bureau, and regularly issues both definitive and commemorative stamps. It also provides postal services for Sark.
The Australian Antarctic Territory, claimed by Australia on 1 December 1959, has used a postal system as its main point of contact since its establishment, due to its isolation. The territory covers over 5.8 million kilometres squared and currently has 5 stations, after Wilkes Station closed down in 1969. Each of the bases has their own post office that are run by Australia Post, who also controls stamp issues according to recent or important events within the territory. The history of the postage system dates back to the original post office within the territory, which first opened in 1955, which was in conjunction with a stamp release. The current system now combines new technologies with aged systems to create more efficiency, with recent stamp releases commending the history of the Australian Antarctic Territory and the Arts.
The Palestinian National Authority began in 1994 to issue stamps and operate postal services as authorized by the Oslo Accords.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Estonia. The stamps of Estonia are issued by the postal administration Eesti Post which is the country's only provider of universal postal services.
The postage stamps and postal history of Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, was linked to its original economic situation until 1993. Mainly ruled by a phosphate production commission, the island was part of the British Straits Settlements colony from 1901 to 1942, then of Singapore from 1946 to 1958. Although it was placed under Australian control in 1958, the island remained postally and philatelically independent until 1993 when Australia Post became the island's postal operator.
The postage stamps and postal history of Norfolk Island depended on Australia until 1947, when the island, an Australian territory since 1914, received its own stamps and postal autonomy.
The postal history of the Pitcairn Islands began with letters being sent without postage stamps, as none were available on Pitcairn. In 1921, the United Kingdom and New Zealand formally agreed upon a system to handle post from the island, but this arrangement was ended in 1926. In 1927, stamps from New Zealand were introduced. To improve the revenue generation of the colony, the British government established an official post office on the island in 1940. The opening of this post office saw the issuance of the first set of Pitcairn Islands stamps.
The story of Japan's postal system with its postage stamps and related postal history goes back centuries. The country's first modern postal service got started in 1871, with mail professionally travelling between Kyoto and Tokyo as well as the latter city and Osaka. This took place in the midst of the rapid industrialization and social reorganization that the Meiji period symbolized in Japanese history. Given how the nation's railroad technology was in its infancy, Japan's growing postal system relied heavily on human-powered transport, including rickshaws, as well as horse-drawn methods of delivery. For example, while commemorating the 50th anniversary of Japan's postal service, the country's 1921 government released decorative postcards depicting intrepid horseback riders carrying the mail. This however was done to compare postal transport in past and present, as the other card showed modern transportation viz. rail and shipping. The railroad net from the north to the south, Aomori to Nagasaki, was completed in 1889. Prior to 1920s, local delivery was mainly by men- and horsepower, not principally different to Europe.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Philippines.
Postage stamps and postal history of Singapore surveys postal history from Singapore and the postage stamps issued by that country and its various historical territories until the present day. Postal service in Singapore began with the delivery of stampless letters whose cost was borne by the receiving person, later encompassed pre-paid letters carried by private mail carriers and provisional post offices, and culminated in a system of universal prepayment that required all letters to bear nationally issued adhesive postage stamps. Singapore is an island country off maritime Southeast Asia, located between the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Tuvalu.
The Barbados Postal Service (B.P.S.) is the national postal operator of Barbados and operates as a department within the Government of Barbados where it reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Barbados Postal Service (B.P.S.) is headed by the acting Postmaster General, Sheila Greaves, who is responsible for maintaining the island’s postal services, subject to the laws of the island. In 1852, the Postal services for Barbados were reconstituted following the passage of local legislation enabling the delivery of inland postage.
The first postal service took place using mail sent with captains of packet ships, using agents in the England and in the islands for the end delivery. The cost was normally 3d. The first pillar boxes in Britain were introduced in the Channel Islands as an experiment in 1852, to collect mail for the Royal Mail packet boats. The oldest pillar box in use in the British Isles is in Guernsey.
