owth of a considerable intercourse with places
abroad. There was besides a large cloth trade. Letters were not,
however, sent exclusively by the King's post. Frequently the merchants
made their own arrangements for the conveyance of their letters; and
since one of the functions of the post in those days was to enable the
authorities to keep a close watch on all correspondence passing within
the realm, in order that conspiracies against the State might be
detected, this proceeding of the merchants was viewed by the Government
with much jealousy. It led to the first assumption by the State of the
monopoly of the carriage of letters. In 1591, before the use of the
posts for the transmission of inland letters for private individuals had
been officially recognized, a royal proclamation forbade the conveyance
of letters to or from places outside the realm except by the King's
post. A further proclamation to the same effect, so far as it related to
foreign letters, was issued in 1609.[676]

In 1619 the foreign post was separated from the ordinary post, and a
foreigner, Matthew De Quester, who had been appointed by Lord Stanhope,
then Master of the Posts, to superintend the foreign post, was appointed
to control the service. In 1626 De Quester published the following
tariff applicable to foreign letters:--

To or from the Hague, Brussels, Paris, and Vienna 30s.
To or from any part of Germany 6s.
From Venice for a single letter 9d.
From Venice for any letter other than a single
letter 2s. 8d.
From Leghorn and Florence for a single letter 1s.
From Leghorn and Florence for any letter other
than a single letter 3s. the ounce.[677]

The tariff was incomplete, but is noteworthy as the first set of rates
of any description issued in England for the conveyance of letters by
post. Stanhope had charged certain fees on letters for the Continent. On
letters to or from Amsterdam or Hamburg, for example, his fee had been
8d.[678] But, until this time, no general table of rates had been
issued.

By the Ordinance of 1657[679] the following rates for foreign letters
were established:--

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