services were more or less permanent in character. Services on other
routes were established to meet local or temporary needs, such as the
assembly of the Reichstag, the meeting of the Electors, Peace
Congresses, War Conferences, and fairs; and these services were
discontinued when the occasion which had required them disappeared.

The organization of this system of messengers resembled in many ways
that of ordinary posts: it was established and managed by the political
authorities; the services were regular; the routes were fixed and stages
were appointed; and the messengers undertook the conveyance of letters,
goods, and persons, by foot, horse, or wagon.[703] At a later date
letter-carriers were employed in some instances for the delivery of
letters conveyed by the messenger services. A charge of 3 pf. was
raised on letters so delivered, the delivery charge on letters obtained
directly from the _Botenmeister_ being 1 pf.[704]

The intellectual awakening of the early sixteenth century, the great
discoveries of that period and their effect on commerce, together with
the tendency then developing towards amalgamation of the principalities
and creation of larger political entities, all increased the necessity
for an efficient system of intercommunication. The result is seen in the
establishment of an Imperial system of posts.[705]

The regular Imperial posts were established towards the end of the
fifteenth century by the Emperor Maximilian I. Johann von Taxis was the
first Imperial Postmaster, and the earliest record of his tenure of the
office is in 1489.[706] A decree suppressing the system of
_Boten-Anstalten_ and the _Metzgerposten_ was issued, but these posts
continued, and it was discovered at a later date that their continuance
was not incompatible with the maintenance of a system of Imperial
posts.[707]

The Imperial posts were to provide more particularly for the
transmission of despatches, and their immediate object was to provide a
means of obtaining information regarding the Turks, and a means of
communication with the princes of neighbouring territories.[708] Their
history is inseparable from that of the family of Thurn and Taxis, to
whom their management was from the first entrusted. This family was of
Italian origin, and before the establishment of the Imperial posts,
Roger the First of Thurn and Taxis had established a horse-post between
Italy and the Tyrol, which proved of so much value to the Empire