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Folio (11.5 inches). 3 & 4 Victoria, Chapter 96. Caption title, pages 733-764. Royal coat of arms. Neatly extracted from a bound volume and expertly mended. The origins of the Royal Mail can be traced back to 1516 when King Henry VIII appointed a Master of the Posts. The General Post Office was officially established by King Charles II in 1660 after the restoration of the monarchy. Queen Annes Post Office Act, 1711 united the post offices of England and Scotland, and established a General Post Office in Ireland, the colonies of North America, and the West Indies. Postal service to and from the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution was disrupted and then finally suspended. It was not until the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 that postal services to the region resumed. Between 1784 and 1812 postage rates increased steadily, culminating in some of the highest rates England had ever seen. Among the first actions Queen Victoria took when she ascended to the throne in 1837 was to appoint a Select Committee on Postage to examine the postal system, resulting in a plethora of new legislation. Legislation passed in 1839 further adjusted the postal system in several important ways, including the introduction of a scheme for a Uniform Penny Post and the authorization of pre-paid adhesive postage stamps for letter mail. Postal reforms continued with the Duties of Postage Act, 1840 wherein POSTAGE CHARGES WERE CALCULATED ACCORDING TO WEIGHT. In the years that followed, the British Post Office was characterized by successive reductions in rates, reliance upon private enterprise for sea carriage of mail, increased use of railways for mail conveyance, and the establishment of parcel post, banking, and electric telegraph services. Seller Inventory # 222
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