Universal Postal Congress 1878

II. Universal Postal Congress
Venue	Paris , Palais Bourbon , France
Period	May 2 to June 4, 1878
Doyen	Louis Adolphe Cochery
proposals	9

The second Universal Postal Congress took place in Paris in 1878. The then finance minister Léon Say led the opening in the Palais Bourbon. The name of the “General Postal Union” is set to Universal Postal Union . Exchange of postage stamps between the members of the association.

Participating countries

In addition to the founding members of the first Universal Postal Congress, the following took part:

decisions

On the firm foundation that the Bern Congress had created, the idea of ​​the Universal Post made rapid progress in spatial and factual terms. The Paris Congress had the task of reviewing and completing individual provisions of the basic contract in accordance with previous developments, to consolidate the structure of the association and to expand its effectiveness according to general traffic needs. The Universal Postal Union Treaty was then given by the mutual consent of 32 states essentially in the form that the Universal Postal Union's basic features have been shown to this day in the Universal Postal Union (also known as the main contract). The main contract was followed by an agreement on the exchange of letters with an indication of the value and the exchange of postal orders. These so-called subsidiary agreements, the number of which increased at later congresses, could be joined by the administrations belonging to the Universal Postal Union at their own discretion. The uniform application of the main contract and the subsidiary agreements is ensured by the fact that from now on common administrative principles have been summarized in implementation agreements (enforcement regulations). In order to facilitate the further development of the international service, the holding of conferences is planned in the meantime of the congresses.

For the free development of postal traffic all over the world it was and remained decisive that every administration regulate the internal traffic of its country freely according to its needs and can conclude special contracts with other administrations that do not conflict with the association contract. This also allows closer associations that have the purpose of facilitating mutual intercourse. Without prejudice to this freedom of contract, the actual development has led to the fact that the individual administrations have taken the resolutions of the congresses and conferences of the Universal Postal Union as an opportunity to simultaneously introduce corresponding regulations in their internal postal service, so that in this way a progressive design of the postal system could be achieved at all. The countries in particular, whose traffic conditions did not initially resemble those of other countries, have taken this path for the benefit of the whole. The German administration has also done this for the rule for practical reasons.

The value letter agreement (up to 5000 Swiss francs) and postal order agreement (up to 500 Swiss francs) came into force on April 1, 1879.

literature

• Concise dictionary of the postal system :
  • 1st edition; 1926: pp. 683-684
  • 2nd Edition; 1953: p. 780 (same article as in the 1st edition with additions)
  • 1st supplement to the 2nd edition; 1956: Erwin Müller-Fischer: Timeline for the history of the postal system
• History of the Deutsche Post
  • Volume 3: History of the Deutsche Reichspost 1871 to 1945 by Karl Sautter ; Federal Printing Office; Frankfurt; 1951
• Archive for German Postal History (Ed .: German Society for Postal and Telecommunications History ):
  • Marc Moser: 100 years of the Universal Postal Union; Part 1 in volume 1/1974 and part 2 in volume 1/1975

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl Sautter: History of the Deutsche Post - Part 3 - History of the Deutsche Reichspost 1871 to 1945; P. 289
2. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system; 1st supplement to the 2nd edition; P. 188
3. ^ Marc Moser: 2nd part; P. 31