Postal services in Malta 1776-1816

Abstract

Old letters from Malta are found throughout all Europe - Great collections of similar letters are treasured in Malta - Merchants also needed postal services - The Post Office at Marseilles and Letters from Malta in the 18th century. In bygone times, we can hardly speak of any postal services among the inhabitants of these small Islands. People, then, lived in settlements or villages that flourished throughout the land; families, which were few in number, rarely moved from their habitations, and thus they hardly ever felt any need of wanting to know about their relatives. Besides, this desire of receiving or sending letters just to get family news is considerably very recent. On the other had, the population numbered only a few thousands, and many of them were illiterate peasants to whom writing or reading meant almost nothing. But when the very few, including the leading authorities wanted to communicate by means of letters, these were carried by couriers, a service which had been developing since the times of the Greeks and the Romans, if not even earlier. On the other hand, owing to the fact that Malta is a small Island in the centre of the Middle Sea, some sort of postal services, however primitive, must have existed from very ancient times, to bridge over the sea which separates us from the nearest point of Sicily. From there, incoming letters found their way here; and that was also the first stepping stage for outgoing mail to the continent and the leading Courts of Europe, where, since the Middle Ages, many letters from these Islands are still treasured.