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The question whether, in a country like Finland,
the government ought to build the larger lines or not,
was decided by the simple fact that the capital could
not possibly be obtained in any other manner, or at
least not so cheaply as by the credit of the State.
And Finland had a class of officials capable and honest
enough to carry through such an enterprise. Common
sense, therefore, determined the action of the
government in this case.
To turn now to the postal system. Its earliest
beginning may be said to have been the “budkafle”
(“budstikke” in Danish-Norwegian), a stick with
signs on it by which the words of the king, as well as
messages about acts of violence, were sent round to
the villages and towns. If the stick was burned at
one end and tied with a string at the other it told of
an attack by the enemy. The police ordinance for
the villages as late as 1742 contained detailed rules
for the despatch of this post, and it may still be used
in the case of a great forest fire. The first real post
was organised by the Swedes, who in the Thirty Years’
War had seen a post organised in Germany by the
family of Taxis. This family, as will be remembered,
was at the head of the German post until quite
recent times, when it was seen that United Germany
was able to take better care of its post than a great
number of independent princes could do. German
experience suggested the organisation carried out in
Sweden in 1636, which was at first connected with
the publication of an official journal, Tidningar och
Avisor, this journal being still continued under the
name of Post - och Inrikestidningar. The peasant
farmers who were obliged to carry the post got a
reduction in their taxes. During the winter the post
was regularly carried round the Gulf of Bothnia.
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