The Universal Postal Union (UPU)

The Postal Union was founded in 1874. Before that date, international exchanges of mail were regulated by numerous special agreements concluded between countries or groups of Countries. The great variety of rates and conditions of dispatch and the diversity of scales of charges etc. which resulted from that situation caused difficulties to the public and the administrative authorities which increased as traffic grew. As early as 1863, a committee, called the International Postal Committee, was organized on the initiative of the Postmaster General of the United States. Representatives of the administrative authorities of fifteen European and American nations assembled in Paris, namely: Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, Sandwich Islands, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and the Hanseatic Towns. Its purpose was to study a number of questions relating to international postal communications. It adopted certain general principles "of such a nature as to facilitate postal relations between peoples and to serve as a basis for international conventions to regulate these relations." These resolutions, however, were not binding; they were intended merely to facilitate and somewhat simplify the many bilateral agreements which administrative authorities had been obliged to conclude. There was no question as yet of a fully developed international postal union.

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