Postal History and Postage Stamps of China

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Brief overview of the history of the post in China : A government post can be traced back to the ruling house of Zhou (1122–225 BC) in China . This mail extended over the whole empire by messengers on foot or on horseback. The word "Jü" (post) appears for the first time in Confucius (551–479 BC). About the postal system under the ruling house Han (206 BC – 23 AD) more details can be found in the Chinese writers of the 2nd century.

From the official collection of documents Pai Kuan Tschih it emerges that under the Tang emperors (618-905) the Tschia Pou Lang Tschung (postmaster general) supervised the post offices, which were spread over the empire at intervals of 30 Li (15 km). According to the Túng Kao (life history and general records), a kind of postal order was already in use, which is considered to be the forerunner of the exchange procedure used in China.

Until the reign of the Ming Emperor , until 1402, there was only mail serving the emperor and the government. Unofficial letters could not be carried. During this time, the great dignitaries accompanied the Lao Fu Zu, advisors who also had to take care of the correspondence. We owe the Min-Tschü, the unofficial post offices, to them. Since most of the consultants came from the province of Zhejiang , a coastal province of central China, with the main cities: Hangzhou , Ningbo and Wenzhou , this company first established itself here. In Ningbo, the headquarters of the new, unofficial postal service in the kingdom was then also. The post offices offered full security, but were not subject to any state supervision. They dealt with the carriage of money orders, silver bars, letters and parcels. In close cooperation with the banks, they used merchant ships, junks , messengers, etc. Their disadvantage was the exclusive care of profitable routes while the unproductive secondary routes were neglected. Nevertheless, this postal facility served well for a long time. During this time, the official J-Tschan-Post and the unofficial Min-Tschü-Post existed side by side.

Towards the end of the 17th century, an English colony formed in Canton . After 150 years, this colony moved to Hong Kong where the first post office was opened as a branch post office of the Central London Post Office. Further branches of the British post office followed in other port cities. The shipping companies allowed the letters to be delivered free of charge to the intermediate ports or to be picked up at the shipping company's agency.

The first Chinese postage stamps, issued by the Maritime Customs Office in 1878

The establishment of foreign post offices prompted the Chinese government to set up a public service state post. You instruct the customs administration to do this. The Treaty of Tianjin (1858) provided for the carriage of embassy mail. After the clearance service, delivery and transport were transferred to the Imperial Sea Customs Directorate, Shanghai and Zhenjiang (Tschingkiang), a port city in Jiangsu Province (Kiangsu) open to European trade , at the mouth of the Yangtze , later in Niuchang , Tianjin (Tientsin) and Yantai (Tschifu) as well as Chinese postal services at the General Customs Inspection.

In 1878 the customs administration issued the first postage stamps. In the same year China was invited to join the Universal Postal Union. The Chinese Post Office was considered to be part of the Universal Postal Union. The German, French and British post offices in China belonged to the Universal Postal Union.

In 1893 the government decided to ask the mandarins in the provinces for their opinion regarding the establishment of a national post office. On March 20, 1896, an imperial decree was issued authorizing the establishment of the Imperial Post Office under the direction of Sir Robert Hart, who was appointed Inspector General of Customs and Posts, on the European model throughout China.

Postage stamp of the Imperial Post from 1897 after joining the Universal Postal Union

In 1896 the Chinese Post informed the Swiss Federal Council of the impending establishment of an imperial post and announced that it would join the Universal Postal Union . Using the foreign post offices, China became more and more involved in international postal traffic. Postal treaties were concluded with France (1900), Japan (1903) and with India and Hong Kong (1904). On November 28, 1911, the post was placed under the supervision of the Jü Tsch́uan Pu, the Ministry of Post and Transport. The Jü-Tschan administration renounced its existence in 1912 in favor of the state posts. Now the Landespost also carried the official letters. By resolution of the Washington Post Congress in 1922, all foreign post offices in China were closed.

The Chinese Constitution of 1923 placed the postal and telegraph systems under the Ministry of Transport. There was a General Postal Directorate with assigned General Postal Inspectorates. In the mid-1930s, all non-governmental posts (min-hsin-chü) were abolished and the post was run exclusively by the state.

Even in the turmoil of the Chinese civil wars , the postal system remained in Mao Zedong's sphere of influence ; the Universal Postal Treaty and the subsidiary agreements had been in effect since December 1950. The Chiang Kai-shek government continued the pre-turmoil post office operations in its area of ​​control ( Taiwan ).

See also

literature

  • Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalog: China Including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Part 17.512 pp., London (2012) ISBN 978-0-85259911-2
  • Stuart Rossiter & John Flower. The Stamp Atlas . London: Macdonald, 1986. ISBN 0-356-10862-7
  • Richard Pratt, Imperial China: History of the Posts (to) 1897, Sahara Publications Ltd. (1998).
  • R. Thiem: The postage stamps of China. (Continuation article ) In: Collector Service from No. 22/1980, pp. 1652–1656 to No. 23/1980, pp. 1744–1745

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