ofitable to them to offer a small pecuniary
inducement to the shipmasters, and accordingly offered to pay a penny
for every letter brought by private ship and handed over by the
shipmaster to the postmaster of the port of arrival.[683] As the farmers
were able to charge the legal rate of inland postage on all such
letters, there was a sufficient margin to leave a profit after payment
of the penny. The regular ship letter fee, which was afterwards
legalized, originated in this practice.

Most of the ship letters came to the port of London, and the
establishment of the penny post in 1680 had a serious effect on the
proceeds of the ship letter money. If the letters were for delivery in
London, they could be dropped into the penny post for delivery at a
penny each, whereas if handed in to the General Post Office as ship
letters they would be charged at the appropriate foreign rates,
according to their place of origin. Thus, letters from Marseilles for
delivery in London would be charged 1s. each, although the service
actually performed by the Post Office was no greater than that performed
for a penny in the penny post. The foreign rates, as applied to ship
letters, were therefore for the most part a simple tax, and the use of
the penny post was greatly resorted to.[684] The Postmasters-General
protested continually against this fraud on the revenue; and in 1696,
in order to put a stop to it, two officers were appointed whose duty it
was to receive letters and packets from all "masters of ships and
vessels, mariners, and passengers as shall be by them hereafter brought
in any ships or vessels into the Port of London."[685]

The payment of a penny a letter to the shipmasters was without legal
sanction until the Act of 1711.[686] This Act revised the foreign rates,
in general in an upward direction, the increase on the rates of 1660
varying from 1d. to 3d., and first established statutory rates for
letters passing to or from the colonies. From London to or from the West
Indies the rate was 18d. for a single letter, and to or from New York
12d. The rate to the West Indies was, in 1765, reduced to 1s. for a
single letter, and this rate became in course of time the standard for
all colonial letters.

In 1796, in addition to the ordinary shilling rate, letters from the
colonies were subjected to a charge at the inland rate in respect of
transmission within this country: e.g., a letter from America would be
charged the shilling