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Introduction
Canada's
modern postal system was founded on decades of institutional experience
that occurred prior to Confederation in 1867. An even longer tradition
of exchanging letters goes as far back as the era of New France (early
1700s).
The early 19th
century was a key period in Canada's postal history. Colonists demanded
and were given the opportunity to take charge of their postal affairs.
This change was both a cause and an effect of the larger process
of Canadian independence. It was all a part of the process of growing
up and leaving the British behind.
Population
Growth in British North America
The
settlement of British North America did not begin in the early 19th
century but it grew considerably during that period. The population
of the three maritime colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and
Prince Edward Island rose from 80,000 in 1800 to over 500,000 by
the middle of the 19th century. Lower Canada's population doubled
in number between 1825 (480,000) and 1851 (890,000). The population
of Upper Canada increased by a factor of six, from 158,000 to 952,000.
Settlements
expanded beyond their borders, up the Saint John Valley, north and
inland from Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, toward the eastern townships
south and east of Montréal. The population of the countryside
became more dense. Ports became towns, towns became cities. All
sectors in the economy expanded, i.e. wheat production, coal mining,
forestry, fishing, etc. The spread of settlements and the growth
of the cities were significant, but the growing complexity of society
was an even more important change. The need to communicate was on
the rise.
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Tying
the Colonies Together
In the early 19th century, the spoken word was a powerful tool of
communication. Oral reports of events travelled the grapevine whose
centre was usually the market place or the tavern. Rumours of sinful
goings-on were tossed about like hot potatoes at the church steps.
In the close-knit community of a rural parish, whether Protestant
or Catholic, no one could live beyond the pale of rumour. Yet, the
written word was becoming more and more important in the daily life
and culture of the colonies.
Books were the
source of new ideas. Increasingly, books became available to the
public and private libraries of British North America. Newspapers
were another source of the written word. Although the majority of
the population in some areas could not read, public opinions freely
expressed in print echoed throughout all levels of society. Dynasties
of newspaper publishing interests emerged.
Before newspapers
became widely available, letter writing was the main method of communication
in Canadian society. Individuals played an important role in the
process of letter writing and letter exchanges, a process that developed
into the postal system. In this system, letter writers were either
message carriers, message shapers or both.
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The
Message Carriers
The primary way of getting private mail from one place to another
was to entrust it to a traveller who was willing to carry it as a
favour, hence the old-fashioned expression of mail "by favour."
Mail was carried by fur-trade voyageurs travelling in the Upper Country.
Mail was put aboard ships sailing for Europe on the person of an official
or colonist going to do business there. Merchants exchanged letters,
credit notes and inventory orders with suppliers across the Atlantic
via agents in New York. Their agents in New York ensured that the
outgoing mail was put aboard ships for Britain and they also made
sure that the incoming mail was sent on up to Canada or to the Maritime
colonies. Within the colonies, bishops and priests handed their letters
over to couriers. Sometimes, their correspondence was sent to the
address of a middleman handling mail for them rather than to a post
office.
Thus, the early
postal system was an informal network of letter writers and their
delivery agents all linked to each other from one port to the next
or along trade and transport routes. This was not new to the Canadian
colonies. The system probably dates from the 14th century when Italian
merchants first devised a decentralized system of commercial control
and information distribution. It became the basis of business information
processing throughout the world economy for the next five centuries.
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The
Message Shapers
The
habit of sending letters via another person was only one aspect of
a larger tradition in sending and making letters. Letter writers fashioned
their own writing quills out of goose feathers. There was no delete
button, as with a modern computer, to remove unwanted words. Mistakes
had to be scratched off the page with a sharp-edged eraser.
Once the letter
was written, it was hand folded-envelopes were not used then-and
sealed. Sealing wax, usually red (black was for funerals), was melted
by candle flame onto the line of the fold. Then a personal imprint
was stamped on the wax. During every step of the process the letter
writer had a hand in the process. When the letter arrived at its
destination it was passed from hand to hand and sometimes read out
loud to the family. On occasion, notes were jotted on the outside
of the cover as the letter headed to the next recipient. A letter
was a living thing, a precious thing. Was it too precious for Her
Majesty's Mails? The short answer is: not entirely.
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