Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/594

Rh 572 P O S T-0 F F I C E [MONEY ORDERS. Money orders. Postal notes. 740,429, in 1859 1,349,676, in 1869 2,198,220, 1 in 1881 2,597,768, in 1882 (inclusive of telegraphs) 3,100,475, in 1883 3,061,748, and in 1884 2,897,427. 2 Money-Order Department. The money-order branch of the post-office was for forty years the private enterprise of three post-office clerks known as &quot;Stow and Company.&quot; It was commenced in 1792, with the special object of facilitating the safe con veyance of small sums to soldiers and sailors, but was soon extended to all classes of small remitters. The postmaster- general sanctioned the scheme without interposing in the management. Each of the three partners advanced 1000 to carry it on ; and each of them seems, during the greater portion of the period, to have derived about 200 a year in profit. In 1830 the amount of remittances from London was only about 10,000. The percentage was eightpence in the pound, out of which threepence were allotted to each of the postmasters receiving and paying, the remaining twopence forming the profit of the partners. On 6th December 1838 the office was converted into an official department under the postmaster-general, the then partners receiving due compensation. The commission was reduced to a fixed charge of Is. 6d. for sums exceed ing 2 and under &amp;lt;5, and of 6d. for all sums not exceed ing 2. In 1840 these rates were reduced to 6d. and 3d. respectively. The number and aggregate amount of the orders issued (inland, colonial, and foreign) in different periods from the reorganization (1839) until 1884 are as follows (Table X.) : j Number. Value. 1881 (quarter ending 31st March) .... 646,989 292 150 1881-82 4,462,920 2 006 918 1882-83 7,980,328 3,451,284 1 1883-84 12,286 556 5 0&quot;8 663 Total 25,376 793 10 779 015 Years. Number. Amount. 1839 188,921 313,124 1844 2,806,803 5,695,395 1849 . 4,248,891 8,152,643 1854 5,466,244 10,462,411 1861-65 (average) 8,055,227 16,624,503 1866-70 9,720,030 19,847,258 1875 16,819,874 27,688,255 1876 s (first three mouths only) 1878-79 4,436,858 17,740.622 7,194,943 27,303,093 1879-80 17,307,573 26,371,020 1880-81 16,935,005 26,003,582 1881-82 4 15,383,033 25,393,574 1882-83 15,090,858 27,597,883 1883-84 14,663,635 27,629,879 From 1871 to the end of 1877, the rates having been reduced to Id. for sums under 10s., and 2d. for sums of 10s. and under 20s., increasing by a graduated scale of Id. for each additional 1 or fraction thereof, inland orders failed to be remunerative ; and it was only by reckoning as profit the amount of unclaimed and forfeited orders that the cost to the office of inland orders could be covered. But, as the loss was only on orders for very small sums, Mr Chetwynd proposed to meet it by issuing postal notes payable at any post-office without previous notice. When the plan was submitted to a committee appointed by the treasury, it was objected that the postal note as a remitting medium would be less secure than the money order. The objection was met in part by giving a discretionary power to fill in the name of the post-office and also that of the payee, and no practical inconvenience or cause of complaint seems to have resulted. And in like manner another 1 Average of five years, and exclusive of telegraphs. - In the Thirtieth Report of the Postmaster-General (1884) the amount is stated as 2,687,100. The statement in the text is from the Analysed Account of the Public Income and Expenditure, pre sented to parliament by the treasury in July 1884, and is unquestion ably the correct one. The comparative deficiency as compared with 1883 is due to the expenditure of 350,000 for plant in the telegraphs and parcel-post departments. 8 From 1877 onwards the official accounts are made up to 31st March in each year. 4 The figures for this year are those given in the general tabular re capitulation of the appendix to the Twenty -eighth Report of Post master-General, 1882, p. 40. In the body of the same report (p. 8) they are stated at 14,880,821 and 23,848,936 respectively. The tabular figures are those also of the Twenty -ninth Report, 1883, and of the Thirtieth Report, 1884. objection which was urged against the new form of money order in several quarters, and very strongly in the Banker s Magazine namely, that they would prove to be an issue of Government small notes under another name has derived no support from experience. &quot;It is found,&quot; says the postmaster-general, &quot;that the average time [during] which these orders arc in circulation is six days, a fact which shows that there was no foundation for the idea that they would be used as currency.&quot; 5 The statistics of notes issued under the provisions of the Postal Orders Act, 43 and 44 Viet. c. 33 (1880), are as follows (Table XI. ) : The postal notes most largely in request are those of Is., 5s., 10s., and 20s. In 1884 plans were under the postmaster-general s con sideration for improving the regulations and for extending the system to the colonies. Meanwhile the money-order business, which for several years past had been constantly declining both in number and in value, was on the increase. In foreign and in colonial orders the increase was in the number as well as in the amount. The inland orders showed an increase in value of nearly two millions sterling (1,856,091) in 1882-83 as compared with 1881-82, although their number was smaller by 386,531. In 1883- 84 there was a decrease of 84 per cent, in the value as compared with that of 1882-83, whilst the increase in the number of postal orders during the same year was more than four millions, the increase in value being more than 1,500,000. The relative amount of the money-order business of the chief towns of the United Kingdom is shown in Table XII. 7 It states the number and amount of the orders paid in each town on one day only (5th May 1876), and for the sake of comparison the cor responding figures for one day in 1884 (5th May) are appended : 5th May 1876. Total of Orders paid. Paid through Bankers. Num ber. Amount. Num ber. Amount. London (general post-office Edinburgh ) 8778 594 1181 1056 1019 882 535 500 393 14,802 1,060 1,550 2,166 2,466 1,855 1,140 948 935 8339 380 731 215 73 526 171 95 13 14,073 657 983 506 115 1,169 493 253 20 Dublin Bristol Hull 5th May 1884. Total of Orders paid. Paid through Bankers. Postal Orders. Num ber. Amount. Number. Amount. Num ber. Amount. London (general post-office) Edinburgh 8 .. . Dublin 9117 420 935 960 1074 10SS 339 420 294 16,278 760 1,350 1,914 2,755 2,174 752 765 617 8,784 254 776 no record 15,608 385 1,112 no record 39 307 547 519 &amp;gt; 371 93 319 158 24 134 198 210 166 93 114 148 67 Manchester Bristol Leeds Hull Postal Savings Banks. The establishment of post-office savings banks was prac- Savii tically suggested in the year 1860 by Mr Charles William bank Sykes of Huddersfield, whose suggestion was cordially received by Mr Gladstone, then chancellor of the exchequer, to whose conspicuous exertions in parliament the effectual working-out of the measure and also many and great improvements in its details are substantially and unques tionably due. Half a century earlier (1807) it had been proposed to utilize the then existing (and very rudimentary) money-order branch of the post-office for the collection and 5 Twenty-eighth Report of Postmaster-General, 1882, p. 8. 6 The rate of commission on foreign money orders was reduced on 1st January 1883 by one-third. To all countries within the Postal Union (see&quot;m/ra, p. 583 sq.) it is now 6d. for sums not exceeding 2; Is. for 5 ; Is. 6d. for 7 ; 2s. for 10. 7 Fractions of 1 are omitted. 8 The figures for 7th May are given, as the 5th was a partial holiday in Edinburgh.