Universal Postal Union 125 Years 1874-1999

United Arab Emirates15 May 1999Draft

The first known Postal document found in Egypt, dates back to 255 BC. But even before that time postal services existed on nearly every continent in the form" of messengers serving kings and emperors. In course of time, religious orders and universities added their own message delivery system and eventually, private individuals were allowed to use these messengers in order to communicate with one another. In these early postal systems, the postal charges were generally paid by the recipient. In the 17 th century the first international postal treaty was established consisting of bilateral agreements governing the transit of mail within several European countries. Two centuries later, the web of bilateral arrangements between countries had become so complex that it began to impede the rapidly developing trade and commercial sectors. National postal reforms started the process of bringing order and simplification to the International Postal Services. Probably, the most important of these took place in England in 1840 under the leadership of Sir Towland Hill. Letters were to be prepaid using a uniform rate of one penny in the domestic service for all letter of a certain weight, regardless distance involved.