e services at the offices of
posting and delivery are performed under different, instead of under the
same, administrations, but for all practical purposes are otherwise
unaffected. The only factor seriously affected is that of
transportation.

The variation in the cost for transportation[652] depends largely on
distance, and in that respect various countries are affected in varying
degrees, not only as regards the actual distances over which their
letters for or from places abroad are sent, but in the way in which
those distances compare with the distances over which letters in the
inland service are conveyed; and the question therefore wears a
different aspect in the different countries. Thus a very large
proportion of letters in the British service are forwarded over greater
distances than letters in the inland service. The same thing is probably
true of France and Germany. Distances in the inland services of the
United States and Canada are, however, comparable with the distances in
the international services in Europe, and in many cases with distances
in their own international services. If, therefore, mere distance of
transmission were the only consideration, there would obviously be
little to urge against the application of the ordinary penny letter
rate for inland transmission, at least to the traffic of the whole of
Europe, just as it has been applied to the traffic of the whole of the
United States and Canada.[653]

But it is doubtful whether inland distances are really comparable with
international distances. The cost of maintaining lines of communication
between distant countries is often altogether out of proportion to the
quantity of mails conveyed; and the sums paid, although ostensibly
payments for the conveyance of mails, are often really subsidies, paid
sometimes in order to assist the shipping or other industry, sometimes
for political purposes.[654] They cannot, therefore, be used as a basis
for calculating the amount of postage which should be charged on private
letters.

This was particularly the case in earlier times.[655] With the expansion
of commerce and the establishment for commercial purposes of regular
lines of steamers between the principal countries of the world, the task
of the Post Office has been much simplified, and, notwithstanding the
growth of mails, the cost actually reduced.[656] It is, however, still
heavy, and in some cases the payments include an element of subsidy. The
co