Post Office: Records on the International Parcel Post Service

This record series comprises memoranda, letters and reports on the establishment and operation of the Foreign and Colonial Parcel Post, and agreements between the Post Office of the United Kingdom, and foreign postal authorities and shipping companies.

Please see The Postal Museum's online catalogue for descriptions of individual records within this series.

The material is arranged in chronological order within sub-series.

For records on the Inland Parcel Post see POST 25

For UPU agreements on the exchange of mail between countries see POST 117.

For agreements on the exchange of mail between countries see POST 46

Topics

Communications

In 1880 a Postal Conference was held at Paris with the view to creating an International Parcel Post and at that conference the British Post Office was represented although having no Inland Parcel Post, it was unable to enter into any international agreement.

The Inland Parcel Post came into operation on 1 August 1883 and from the outset it was intended to link this service with the International Parcel Post as soon as possible.

Early in 1883 the proposals to be submitted to the forthcoming Postal Congress were being circulated and it was apparent that there would be an attempt to introduce into the Parcel Post Convention modifications which the Post Office would find very difficult to accept while its parcel post was yet in its infancy. A circular letter was sent to all the signatories of the convention asking whether they were willing to concede to Great Britain the special terms agreed to at the Paris Conference of 1880. The replies to the circular were generally favourable but the Treasury at this time declined to allow the Post Office to proceed with negotiations until the Inland Parcel Post was more firmly established. It was not until November 18884 that authority for the establishment of a Foreign and Colonial Parcel Post was at length obtained, and the service established.