Commercial Papers Rates 1875-1966

The term "commercial papers" in the overseas post referred to papers or documents that were wholly or partly handwritten or drawn, but were not in the nature of correspondence. The initial weight step for commercial papers was high to take account of the nature of such material.

Examples included legal documents, invoices and other mercantile paperwork, manuscripts of books and music, and even postal history! (Well, "letters and post-cards of old date which have already served their original purpose" anyway.)

The rates shown here originally applied specifically to UPU countries (with any existing agreements applying for countries that had not yet joined the UPU), but were made general from 1st January 1892.

Commercial papers as a separate category were discontinued from 1st February 1966.

Rates

[*]France joined the (then) General Postal Union only as from 1st January 1876. As a consequence, from 1st July to 31st December 1875 commercial papers to several GPU countries were charged at 2d per 2oz if sent via France. This applied to Egypt, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Malta and Turkey, and except in the case of Spain was an optional route.