The Medieval Postal Service

[fabio guillermo rojas]

Last summer, I argued with a friend over the privatization of the postal
service. He said that the postal service already did a good job as 
one could ask for. A bystander opined that without market forces, how
could one really know if a job was done efficiently or not?

With the postal service, I now have an a partial answer. I was 
reading a Menand's history of the Mediterranean in the 1400's.
He caclulated that it took about two weeks, during good weather
and peaceful times, for a package to move from Madrid to Constantinople.
Not bad. The current postal service offers first class packages in about
7-10 working days. CDnow routinely tells customers 14 days is to be
expected. Interesting.

-fabio