History of the post and stamp

Abstract

The first information about the transmitting of messages was made known to us from the Chinese and Assyrian Civilisations. The Egyptians about 4000 years B.C. have also had a more or less organised delivery system of messages, as well as the Greeks and Romans. After the invention of paper in the middle ages, a great progress was made and the communication between people by way of transmitting messages came a step forward. But still something was missing, and that was the cover, to put the letter in it. That was not before the middle of the 19th century; before that, letters were folded or rolled up, and were sealed with a seal of wax. But it was not before 1500 that a well organised regular Service was established by Emperor Maximilian in nominating a nobleman of Bergamo Francois de Tassis, later called of Thurn & Taxis, as Postmaster of the whole Holy Roman Empire. In 1840, in Great Britain, the first adhesive stamp popularly referred to as the "Penny Black" was issued.