French Post in China
The French Post Office in China existed from 1862 to 1922. The French Post Office set up foreign post offices in the Chinese Empire after the Beijing Convention granted European states extensive rights in the so-called treaty ports . The postal service accepted consignments from foreign, mainly French, consular officers , traders , missionaries and travelers to Europe , European colonies or other contractual ports. Although the post office was also open to locals, there was no domestic Chinese postal service outside of the contractual ports. Although a postal monopoly was established in China from 1896 with the establishment of a Chinese state postal service , the European powers were able to further expand their postal services due to the provisions of the “ Unequal Treaties ”.
The French postal service was divided into two regions, post offices in the north and northeast of China were directly subordinate to the French post office, in the south the post offices were affiliated with the French Indochinese postal system . The territory of Kouang-Tchéou-Wan , which France had leased from the Chinese Empire for 99 years in 1898, had a special position . Since the lease area was subordinate to the Governor General of French Indochina, the post office there was also subordinated to the Post of Indochina.
The spelling of the place names is based on the contemporary French transcription, as can be found on postal documents, stamps and stamps.
history
French Post Offices in Northern China
The first post office was opened in 1862 by the French consulate in Shanghai . Contemporary French postage stamps were used until 1894, which were canceled with a dot diamond cancel with the number 5104 . Such canceled stamps are sought after and significantly more valuable than the same stamps with stamps from French locations. Until 1877, mailing a letter to the French and British colonies in the Far East cost 60 cents per 7.5 grams. The tariff was then reduced to 50 centimes.
The second post office was opened in Tientsin in March 1889 , further post offices followed in Cheefoo and Hankow (November 1898), Beijing (December 1900), Amoy (November 1902), and in Foochow and Ningpo (October 1902). The post offices were in competition with British , German or Imperial Russian foreign post offices in all places .
From 1894 French postage stamps were replaced by stamps with the imprint Chine . In 1901, temporary postage stamps were also produced in Beijing by imprinting A PERCEVOIR and were used until 1907. In 1902 stamps were printed with the national designation Chine . From 1907, the stamps were no longer sold for French francs , but for the silver currency common in China ( trading piasters ), which necessitated corresponding overprints with a new currency indication. All post offices were closed on December 31, 1922.
French-Indochinese Post in Southern China
In the southern regions of China, the post office of the French colony of Indochina organized the post offices in Mongtze (January 1900, later written Mong-Tseu), Yunnansen , later Yunnanfu (February 1900), Hoi Hao (May 1900), Canton (from June 1901) and Tchongking and Pakhoi (February 1902). Between 1902 and 1905, French Indochinese stamps were used in post offices with a two-line imprint “CHINE” and the indication of the value in Chinese characters. Then, as in 1901 in Canton and Hoi Hao, French Indochinese postage stamps were used, which had the place names overprinted with Latin characters and Chinese values. The stamps were sold against French currency until 1918, after which the changeover to the silver trading piaster followed, which made new value imprints necessary. These overprint series from the various post offices formed the last stamps, as all post offices were closed on December 31, 1922.
Kouang-Tchéou-Wan lease area
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Kouang-Tchéou-Wan, today's Guangzhouwan, was leased by France for 99 years in 1898 and served as a naval base and supply station. The post office opened in 1900, initially using French Indochina stamps and from 1901 French Indochinese general edition stamps for China. The first postage stamps with the name of the place (shortened to Kouang-Tchéou ) were not issued until 1906 and, like the other post offices in southern China, consisted of stamps of French Indochina with a two-line overprint applied in Hanoi , the place name in Latin characters above and below shows the value in Chinese characters. The leased area remained under French control even after 1922. In 1939, the post office issued special editions for the New York World's Fair and the 150th anniversary of the French Revolution . In 1940, after the German invasion of France, the connection with the mother country was broken, but some special and postage stamps were still sold at the collector's counter in Paris, which could no longer be used. France ceded the lease area back to China in 1943 and closed the post office.
See also
literature
- Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalog. Part 17 China. 10th ed., London and Ringwood, 2014, ISBN 978-0-85259-911-2 , pp. 237-238 and 241-247.
Web links
- French postal rates between the treaty ports (Engl.)