Re: The Medieval Postal Service
I was reading Braudel's text and he said that for each leg of a journey (12-18 miles) the courier would charge 1 ducat. Thus trans mediterranean letters could cost an entire year's pay. -fabio
Re: The Medieval Postal Service
Desiree writes: Though I have no doubt that privatization would be better, don't forget the sheer difference in bulk of mail that must be handled. ~loves playing Devil'sAdvocate~ Shipping in bulk should be easier and faster due to economies of scale. -- Dr. Alexander Tabarrok Vice President and Director of Research The Independent Institute 100 Swan Way Oakland, CA, 94621-1428 Tel. 510-632-1366, FAX: 510-568-6040 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: The Medieval Postal Service
A true and recent story, that is amazingly on point: In May of 1999, I bet my brother that NY Met shortstop Rey Ordonez could not accomplish the not-so-impressive feat of a .340 on-base percentage. (For those of you who are not baseball fans, fret not; there's no more baseball involved in this story.) I won. In lieu of the $5 he owed, I said he could mail me a bagel. The catch: No packaging. Just a label for the stamp and for my address. The Post Office said no; the bagel needed to be packaged in "Post Office approved" mailing tape. We agreed this would be acceptable, so long as it was obvious that a bagel was being sent through the postal service. Procrastination set in, and he only recently made it to the post office. The bagel was finally mailed on 01/03/01. A small (1" x 3") piece of looseleaf paper with my address written on it was wrapped tightly next to a 59 cent bagel from Bagel King (which, admittedly, is a waste of a bagel). It was brought to a post office in Connecticut (about 75 minutes by car from Manhattan). A label with a metered postage stamp for $1.21 was affixed to the outside, and enclosed in even more mailing tape. The postal worker told my brother, perhaps jokingly, that the bagel may not reach me here in Philadelphia, as someone my eat it en route. (Tangent: GROSS.) I received the bagel (and one really long hair) today, 01/10/01. It is both uneaten and unopened. I'll try and get a digital picture of it soon, in case anyone is interested. Lesson learned: It costs $1.80 plus one week's time to get a totally unedible bagel from the NY City area to Philadelphia, via USPS. However, if a private company in Philadelphia claims to have "Authentic, Fresh, New York Bagels" (as some do), one can be sure that for $1.80, that bagel will come with cream cheese and a glass of orange juice. And the USPS will almost certainly not be involved. Dan Lewis [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: The Medieval Postal Service
:Good point, Alex. I think I like the medieval example because it's a little more shocking - the US Post does about the same job as private postal carriers in the Dark Ages. Though I have no doubt that privatization would be better, don't forget the sheer difference in bulk of mail that must be handled. ~loves playing Devil'sAdvocate~ _ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
Re: The Medieval Postal Service
On Tue, Jan 09, 2001 at 05:10:30PM -0600, fabio guillermo rojas wrote > > 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. Evidence of the greater efficency of private postal services does exist in present time too. Some countries already have privatised their postal service. In the Netherlands PTT-Post has been privatised and the resulting company has since then gone global by taking over TNT, thus forming the "TNT-Post group". They claim to be the first Postal services company publically listed at the stock exchange. The group doesn't enjoy a state sanctioned monopoly any longer, but they do still have a natural monopoly, as they give very good service, which makes it harder for a competitor to establish themselves. Competition does exist at a local level though, with local postal services existing in some towns. Comparing the (private) Dutch post with the still state owned postal service in other European countries one can only conclude that the Dutch post performs better. I've lived both in Belgium and in the Netherlands, two countries of similar size and population, with similar standards of living and economic activity (and mostly the same language too...) In Belgium, the state owned Post doesn't deliver mail on saturdays, the Dutch Post does. The Dutch post guarantees delivery by the next working day for ordinary mail (granted, the country is about the size of Maryland), the Belgian Post seems to be unable to achieve this in a similar sized country. The Belgian Post needs governement subsidies, has far to much staff. The Dutch Post is listed on the stock exchange and pays a dividend... Enough said I think... Krist -- Krist van Besien[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: The Medieval Postal Service
Any idea what the market price was (in real terms) for sending a package from Madrid to Constantinople? Seiji __Seiji Steimetz Office: SST 311Dept. of Economics (949) 824-1390University of California, Irvine3151 Social Science Plaza [EMAIL PROTECTED]Irvine, CA 92697 www.ags.uci.edu/~ssteimet "We dance round in a ring and suppose, But the Secret sits in the middle and knows." - Robert Frost__ - Original Message - From: fabio guillermo rojas To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 3:10 PM Subject: The Medieval Postal Service Last summer, I argued with a friend over the privatization of the postalservice. He said that the postal service already did a good job as one could ask for. A bystander opined that without market forces, howcould 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 weatherand peaceful times, for a package to move from Madrid to Constantinople.Not bad. The current postal service offers first class packages in about7-10 working days. CDnow routinely tells customers 14 days is to beexpected. Interesting.-fabio
Re: The Medieval Postal Service
Good point, Alex. I think I like the medieval example because it's a little more shocking - the US Post does about the same job as private postal carriers in the Dark Ages. -fabio > You don't have to go back that far. The Pony Express had speeds > comparable to today's US Post Office on routes like New York to Boston > etc. Fed. Ex. UPS etc. are also superior for packages so why wouldn't > they be superior for letters? > > Alex
Re: The Medieval Postal Service
You don't have to go back that far. The Pony Express had speeds comparable to today's US Post Office on routes like New York to Boston etc. Fed. Ex. UPS etc. are also superior for packages so why wouldn't they be superior for letters? Alex -- Dr. Alexander Tabarrok Vice President and Director of Research The Independent Institute 100 Swan Way Oakland, CA, 94621-1428 Tel. 510-632-1366, FAX: 510-568-6040 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The Medieval Postal Service
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
