Keep in mind that the public posts first developed in the Renaissance were not the first posts in history. Many empires existed before 1300, and whenever an empire arose, the communication system to administer that empire had to be created along with it. The provincial governor of a colony needed to know what taxes were to be collected (as well as having some method of sending them back home), and he had to be informed on new laws and ordinances. In nearly every part of the pre-Renaissance world, empires and governments established similar lines of postal communication. But a walking carrier, running messenger, or even a man on horseback can only cover a small distance before he or his mount tires and must rest. For governmental communication, speed is vital. Hence, a system of relay stations was organized in virtually every empire, so that the message might be carried at top speed all day— and all night, if need be.
So standard was this type of military and governmental communication (the two are usually indistinguishable in pre-modern governments) that Herodotus reports that Persia in the sixth century B.C. had over 1,700 miles of post roads— from one end of the empire to the other— with over 110 relay stations along the way. The Romans, too, had a comparable system throughout their empire, even stretching north into Britain. They called the rest stations for their carriers mansiones (from which we get the word “mansion”). The Chinese had a similar system, which began in the second century B.C. and remained fundamentally the same as theone described by Marco Polo about a thousand years later.
But perhaps the most ingenious system of all was devised by the Incas. Their carriers were speedsters, each sprinting along a 1.5 mile route, before their message wa
s passed on to the next runner. In a single day, 250 miles could be covered this way, using over 100 runners. Remember, there were no horses in the New World until the Spanish introduced them; although this communication system was perhaps the world’s most labor-intensive, but in terms of speed it set a pace that was enviable.
Interaction between the official and private posts is a modern phenomenon. In pre-Renaissance times, carriers for the private sector were not permitted to use the relay stations of the official post, nor were official carriers allowed to carry private letters. The post was designated a royal or state prerogative, and its functioning, apart from the public sector, was considered of prime importance to most governments.