Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T20:22:46.621Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Global commerce in small boxes: parcel post, 1878–1913*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2015

Léonard Laborie
Léonard Laborie*
Affiliation:
IRICE, CNRS, 44 rue de l'Amiral Mouchez, F-75014 Paris, France E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Even if the high-tech and ‘revolutionary’ electric telegraph has become a favourite topic for communication historians dealing with global history, it cannot alone epitomize the first modern age of globalization. The postal network, and parcel post in particular, was also a key agent of globalization. In 1880, several Universal Postal Union member states signed a convention for the exchange of parcel post, opening a new channel in the world of commerce. By the end of the nineteenth century, millions of packets poured into post offices and railway stations, crossed countries, and created all sorts of transnational connections, from family to business to humanitarian relations. Behind the ordinary, seemingly low-tech small boxes lay a sophisticated service that emerged from transnational dynamics, challenged both national and international commercial circuits, and produced more complex control of economic borders.

Keywords

commercecommunicationcustomsparcelpost
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , July 2015 , pp. 235 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author warmly thanks Heidi Tworek and Simone Müller for their enthusiasm and tact in editing the present issue, as well as the participants at the workshop ‘The intellectual foundations of global commerce and communications’ (Harvard University, March 2013) for their questions and comments, especially Richard R. John and Erez Manela. Thanks also to Simon Paul and the two anonymous referees, as well as to Muriel Le Roux and Sebastien Richez, from the Committee for the History of La Poste, and Benjamin Thierry for their support and input.

References

1 Archives nationales (henceforth AN), Pierrefitte, France, F90 20432, Service d'information économique du ministère du Commerce, de l'Industrie, des Postes et Télégraphes, au secrétaire général des Postes et Télégraphes, ‘Colis postaux interdits à Valparaiso’, 1918.

2 AN, F90 20432, Secrétariat des services de guerre du ministère du Commerce, au délégué du ministre du Commerce à la commission des dérogations aux prohibitions de sortie, ‘Trafics par le Brésil’, 1918.

3 Farré, Sébastien, Colis de guerre: secours alimentaire et organisations humanitaires (1914–1947), Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2014Google Scholar.

4 National Archives and Records Administration (henceforth NARA), Washington, DC, RG 28, Records of the United States Postal Service, Office of the Second Assistant Postmaster General, Division of Foreign Mails, records relating to the United States Postal Agency in France, 1917–1920, box 2, ‘The largest undertaking in the history of letter-writing’, prepared and distributed by Inspection Division, Postal Express Service, France, May 1919, pp. 1, 9.

5 Roustan, Louis, Congrès international de la réglementation douanière: examen du régime douanier international des colis postaux; rapport présenté au nom de la commission d'organisation, Paris: Hugonis, 1900Google Scholar, pp. 29–30.

6 For the historiography of telegraphy, see Heidi J. S. Tworek and Simone M. Müller, ‘Editorial: communicating global capitalism’, in this issue, pp. 208–11.

7 Henkins, David M., Postal age: the emergence of modern communications in nineteenth-century America, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007Google Scholar.

8 John, Richard R., ‘Postal systems’, in Joel Mokyr, ed., The Oxford encyclopedia of economic history, vol. 4, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003Google Scholar, pp. 315–18.

9 Campbell-Smith, Duncan, Masters of the post: the authorized history of the Royal Mail, London: Penguin, 2011Google Scholar, p. 1.

10 Laborie, Léonard, L'Europe mise en réseaux: la France et la coopération internationale dans les postes et les télécommunications (années 1850–années 1950), Brussels: Peter Lang, 2010Google Scholar; Giuntini, Andrea, Le meraviglie del mondo: il sistema internazionale delle comunicazioni nell'ottocento, Prato: Istituto di Studi Storici Postali, 2011Google Scholar, pp. 35–97.

11 Stearns, Peter, Globalization in world history, New York: Routledge, 2010Google Scholar, p. 159.

12 Reinalda, Bob, Routledge history of international organizations: from 1815 to the present day, London: Routledge, 2008Google Scholar, pp. 54–8. On the ITU, see Laborie, Léonard ‘Globalizing the telegraph: the ITU and the governance of the first globalization of telecommunications’, in M. Michaela Hampf and Simone Müller-Pohl, eds., Global communication electric: business, news and politics in the world of telegraphy, Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag, 2013Google Scholar, pp. 63–91.

13 Wolfram Kaiser, Johann Schot, Writing the rules for Europe: experts, cartels, and international organizations, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2014, pp. 1–5, 45–7.

14 Farré, Colis de guerre. On mail ordering, see Coopey, Richard, O'Connell, Sean, and Porter, Dilwyn, Mail order retailing in Britain: a business and social history, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005Google Scholar.

15 Jones, Chester L., ‘The parcel post in foreign countries’, Journal of Political Economy, 22, 6, 1914Google Scholar, pp. 509, 511.

16 L. W. C., , ‘For an American parcels post’, New York Times, 31 August 1902Google Scholar, p. 28. On Cowles, see Kielbowicz, Richard B., ‘Government goes into business: parcel post in the nation's political economy 1880–1915’, Studies in American Political Development, 8, 1, 1994Google Scholar, p. 164. For reprints of Cowles's essays, see John, Richard R., The American postal network, 1792–1914, vol. 4, London: Pickering & Chatto, 2012Google Scholar, pp. 225–52.

17 Documents de la conférence postale de Paris, 1880, Bern: Lang, 1880, p. 53.

18 Ibid., p. 180.

19 See Laborie, , L'Europe mise en réseaux, pp. 87–110Google Scholar, 138–55.

20 On the UPU, see George Codding, The Universal Postal Union: coordinator of the international mail, New York: New York University Press, 1964; and Lyall, Francis, International communications: the International Telecommunication Union and the Universal Postal Union, Farnham: Ashgate, 2011Google Scholar, pp. 213–64.

21 Richard R. John, ‘Projecting power overseas: U. S. postal policy and international standard-setting at the 1863 Paris postal conference’, https://economics.barnard.edu/sites/default/files/rjohn_on_intl_communications.pdf.

22 Documents du Congrès postal international réuni à Berne du 15 septembre au 9 octobre 1874, Bern: Bureau international de l'UPU, 1944, p. 139.

23 Documents de la conférence postale de Paris, 1880, p. 177.

24 Daunton, Martin, Royal Mail: the post office since 1840, London: Athlone Press, 1985, pp. 3–35Google Scholar.

25 See Peter A. Shulman, ‘Ben Franklin's ghost: world peace, American slavery, and the global politics of information before the Universal Postal Union’, in this issue, pp. 212–34.

26 Blayac, Raoul, Origine, évolution et organisation de l'Union postale universelle, Montpellier: Ch. Déhan, 1932Google Scholar, p. 54.

27 Henniker Heaton campaigned for an imperial penny postage: John Henniker Heaton, The recent history of the imperial penny postage movement, n.p.: Imperial Federation, 1886.

28 Documents du congrès postal de Washington 1897, Bern: Staempfli, 1898, p. 724. See also Beelenkamp, C. J., Les lois postales universelles élucidées et annotées à l'aide de documents officiels, The Hague: Mouton, 1910Google Scholar, p. 436.

29 Mattelart, Armand, L'invention de la communication, Paris: La Découverte, 1997Google Scholar, pp. 29–30.

30 Congrès extraordinaire de Berne, 1900, quoted in L'Union postale universelle, sa fondation et son développement, 1874–1949: mémoire, Bern: Bureau international de l'Union, 1949, p. 96.

31 Documents du congrès postal international réuni à Berne, p. 14.

32 Documents du congrès postal de Paris, 1878, Bern: Lang, 1878, p. 616.

33 ‘The introduction of a uniform rate of postage for small parcels in international relations’, L'Union postale, December 1878, pp. 246–54.

34 Documents du congrès postal de Paris, 1878, p. 590.

35 Documents du congrès postal de Washington, p. 369.

36 Jones, , ‘Parcel post’, p. 512Google Scholar; Alexander Engel, ‘Buying time: futures trading and telegraphy in nineteenth-century global commodity markets’, in this issue, pp. 284–306.

37 Jones, , ‘Parcel post’, p. 511Google Scholar.

38 Documents du congrès postal de Paris, 1878, p. 591.

39 Ibid., p. 378.

40 François Caron, Histoire des chemins de fer en France, 1740–1883, Paris: Fayard, 1997, p. 488.

41 Archives du ministère des Affaires étrangères (henceforth AMAE), La Courneuve, Affaires consulaires, 426 QO 40, Légation de France aux Pays-Bas, 7 June 1881.

42 Documents de la conférence postale de Paris, 1880, p. 177.

43 Quoted in US Senate, Parcel post in foreign countries: prepared under the direction of Jonathan Bourne Jr., Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1912, p. 93.

44 Ibid., p. 516.

45 Ibid., p. 101.

46 NARA, RG 28, 183, Embassy of the USA, Vienna, 16 and 21 September 1911.

47 Archives de la Chambre de commerce de Paris, Paris, 2MI50, ‘Rapport présenté, au nom de la Commission des Voies et Moyens de Communication, par M. Brunel, adopté et converti en délibération par la CCIP dans sa séance du 6 novembre 1901’.

48 US Senate, Parcel post, p. 31.

49 Mémorial du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, 41, 9 July 1885, p. 52.

50 Marfaing, Joseph, Les colis postaux, Toulouse: Imprimerie Saint-Cyprien, 1910Google Scholar, p. 2.

51 Zola, Emile, Au Bonheur des dames, Paris: G. Charpentier, 1883, pp. 49–50Google Scholar.

52 E. Marre, ‘Lettre de l'Aveyron’, Le Cultivateur aveyronnais, 31 July 1898, p. 466.

53 Laurent, W., Les transports par colis postaux, Paris: Domois-Dijon, 1906Google Scholar; Pons, Alexandre, Le régime français des colis postaux, Montpellier: Imprimerie coopérative ouvrière, 1908Google Scholar ; Marfaing, Les colis postaux.

54 US Senate, Parcel post, pp. 29–30.

55 Ibid.

56 Ibid, p. 253.

57 Ibid.

58 AN, 19870773/48, Chambre de commerce du Lot-et-Garonne, séance du 30 avril 1897, ‘Protestation contre le projet de création de colis postaux de 10 kilos. Rapport de M. G. Thomas, secrétaire-trésorier’.

59 Ibid.

60 Laurent, , Les transports, p. 168Google Scholar.

61 Ibid., pp. 169–70.

62 L'Union postale universelle, pp. 60–2.

63 Ibid., p. 16.

64 Beelenkamp, , Les lois postales, pp. 429–430Google Scholar.

65 Archives de Paris (henceforth AP), Paris, Fonds CCIP, 2ETP/4/3/20 5, Le président de la Chambre de commerce de Paris au ministre de l'Agriculture et du Commerce, 27 June 1879.

66 Beelenkamp, , Les lois postales, p. 430Google Scholar.

67 Documents de la conférence postale de Paris, 1880, pp. 84, 188.

68 Agreement respecting the admission of parcels to be delivered free of all charges into the parcel post exchange between Great Britain and France, Blue prints series, 1899.

69 E. Eschbaecher, ‘Colis’, in Berthelot et al., La grande encyclopédie: inventaire raisonné des sciences, des lettres et des arts par une société de savants et de gens de lettres, Paris: Société anonyme de la grande encyclopédie, 1886–1902, vol. 11, p. 923.

70 Hennequin, Emile, Manuel de transports commerciaux et de douane, Paris: Payot, 1919Google Scholar, p. 473.

71 Stein, Sarah Abrevaya, ‘Mediterranean Jewries and global commerce in the modern period: on the trail of the Jewish feather trade’, Jewish Social Studies, 13, 2, 2007, p. 11Google Scholar.

72 Thomas Figarol, ‘Le district industriel de Saint-Claude et le monde du diamant à l’âge de la première mondialisation (années 1870–1914)’, PhD thesis, Université de Franche-Comté, 2015, p. 395.

73 Laurent, , Les transports, p. 176–177Google Scholar.

74 Hennequin, , Manuel de transports, p. 472Google Scholar.

75 Circulaires de MM. Dejean, Arago et Thayer, circulaire no. 32, 18 December 1848.

76 Laurent, , Les transports, p. 178Google Scholar.

77 Marnot, Bruno, La mondialisation au XIXe siècle (1850–1914), Paris: Colin, 2012, pp. 154–158Google Scholar.

78 From the revision of the convention in 1906 onwards. Georges Pallain, Les douanes françaises, vol. 1: régime général, organisation, fonctionnement, Paris: Librairie Administrative Paul Dupont, 1913, p. 342.

79 Pons, , Le régime français, p. 62Google Scholar.

80 Bureau international de l'UPU, ‘Objets interdits à l'importation dans les pays signataires de la Convention concernant les colis postaux’, Bern, 12 October 1886.

81 AMAE, Affaires consulaires, 426QO16, Légation impériale de Chine, Paris, 20 June 1903.

82 Roustan, , Congrès international de la réglementation douanière, pp. 31–32Google Scholar.

83 Pallain, , Les douanes françaises, p. 342Google Scholar.

84 Le Cultivateur de l'Aveyron, du Cantal, du Lot et de la Lozère, 11 July 1897, p. 435.

85 Roustan, , Congrès international de la réglementation douanière, pp. 38–39Google Scholar.

86 Ibid., p. 8.

87 US Senate, Parcel post, p. 293.

88 The Telegraph, July 1883, quoted in Sarah Jenkins, ‘130 years of the parcel post’, 2013, http://postalheritage.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/130-years-of-the-parcel-post/ (consulted 24 February 2014).

89 Quoted in Cowles, James L., A parcels post: a cent a pound, Hartford, CT: Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1894Google Scholar, reprinted in John, American postal network, vol. 4, p. 234.

90 Ibid.

91 J. Henniker Heaton, ‘European parcels post’, Arena, 34, August 1905, pp. 118–19.

92 L. W. C., ‘For an American parcels post’.

93 ‘Post Office 1902’, Journal of the Society of Arts, 50, September 1902, p. 814.

94 Henniker Heaton, ‘Ten years’ postal progress: an imperial plan’, Contemporary Review, 68, July 1895, p. 8.

95 Kielbowicz, ‘Government goes into business’. See also Fuller, Wayne E., RFD: the changing face of rural America, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1966, p. 199–227Google Scholar; Barron, Hal S., Mixed harvest: the second great transformation in the rural north, 1870–1930, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1997Google Scholar, pp. 155–92.

96 Postal Progress League's resolution, quoted in ‘Postal department bitterly attacked’, New York Times, 30 November 1910, p. 20.

97 Kielbowicz, , ‘Government goes into business’, p. 152Google Scholar.

98 ‘Mr. Dayton is delighted’, New York Times, 8 September 1894, p. 1.

99 ‘Wants parcel post here’, New York Times, 25 July 1907, p. 14.

100 ‘Parcels post discussed’, New York Times, 12 November 1903, p. 7.

101 ‘Parcels sent by mail’, New York Times, 3 March 1886, p. 3.

102 Heaton, ‘European parcels post’, p. 114. See also ‘League for parcels post’, New York Times, 30 December 1910, p. 3; Upton Sinclair, The brass check: a study of American journalism, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003 (first published 1919), p. 227.

103 Kielbowicz, , ‘Government goes into business’, p. 160Google Scholar.

104 He would only send an observer there, Mr. Brulatour. See Documents de la conférence postale de Paris, 1880, p. 40.

105 ‘The parcel post system’, New York Times, 24 April 1887, p. 1.

106 ‘Looking for a parcel post’, New York Times, 7 January 1896, p. 10.

107 Green, E. M., ‘Franco-American trade’, New York Times, 1 January 1900Google Scholar.

108 Laurent, , Les transports, p. 181Google Scholar.

109 On German lobbying, see ‘National capital topics: international parcel post’, New York Times, 16 January 1886, p. 3.

110 American Chamber of Commerce in France Archives, Paris, Meeting of members, 6 September 1899, p. 3. I thank Philippe Rochefort for finding this reference.

111 Ibid., Meeting of members, 4 October 1899, p. 2; Green, ‘Franco-American trade’.

112 AP, Paris, 2ETP/4/3/20 5, Sous-secrétariat d’État des Postes et des Télégraphes, au Président de la Chambre de commerce de Paris, ‘Colis postaux entre la France et les États-Unis’, 26 April 1901.

113 ‘A British–American parcels post service’, New York Times, 26 August 1902, p. 1.

114 AMAE, 426QO22, Patenôtre, ‘Conventions relatives à l’échange de colis postaux’, 11 December 1895.

115 L. W. C., ‘For an American parcels post’.

116 ‘New European postal treaties are ready’, New York Times, 12 June 1904, p. 4.

117 ‘Mails will be sorted on steamship at sea’, New York Times, 7 February 1905, p. 5.

118 Ibid.

119 Chambre de commerce française de New York, Bulletin mensuel, February 1903, p. 3.

120 US Senate, Parcel post, p. 292.

121 L. W. C., ‘For an American parcels post’.

122 George V. L. Meyer, ‘A parcels post’, North American Review, 187, 628, March 1908, p. 330.

123 US Senate, Parcel post.

124 Kielbowicz, , ‘Government goes into business’, p. 165Google Scholar.

125 ‘Postal department bitterly attacked’, New York Times, 30 November 1910, p. 20.

126 Jones, , ‘Parcel post’, p. 525Google Scholar.

127 ‘Calls parcel post meeting’, New York Times, 27 January 1919, p. 4.

128 Cowles, , A parcels post, p. 2Google Scholar.

129 John, ‘Projecting power overseas’.

130 Other contemporary accounts focus exclusively on internal factors. See, for instance, Roper, Daniel, ‘Fundamental principles of parcel-post administration’, Journal of Political Economy, 22, 6, 1914, pp. 526–535Google Scholar.

131 See Plasseraud, Yves and Savignon, François, Paris 1883: genèse du droit unioniste des brevets, Paris: Litec, 1983Google Scholar, pp. 105, 255.

132 Blaise Wilfert-Portal, ‘L'histoire culturelle de l'Europe d'un point de vue transnational’, Revue Sciences/Lettres, 1, 2013, p. 15. See also Bently, Lionel and Sherman, Brad, ‘Great Britain and the signing of the Berne Convention in 1886’, Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA, 48, 3, 2001, pp. 311–340Google Scholar.

133 Levinson, Marc, The box: how the shipping container made the world smaller and the world economy bigger, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006Google Scholar.

134 Jeff Guo, ‘The Postal Service is losing millions a year to help you buy cheap stuff from China’, Washington Post, 9 December 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/09/12/the-postal-service-is-losing-millions-a-year-to-help-you-buy-cheap-stuff-from-china/ (consulted 10 January 2015).