Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - X. Internal Communications - 3. Country Roads. By C. E. Gyllenberg - 4. Post Service. By R. Lundgren
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632
x. internal communications.
corresponding proportion was only 79"4 %, a figure that has been rising steadily
ever since. Of the posting-stations fixed by contract, 1 179, or 85’7 % of them,
received a grant (see above). On the whole, these figures too, are on
the increase. The total amount of these grants during the period 1881—85
came to about 450 000 kronor; between 1886—90, to about 410 000 kronor;
1891—95, to about 370 000 kronor; between 1896—1900, to about 360 000
kronor and, during the period 1901—05, to about 400 000 kronor annually. —
The maximum posting-charges are: in the Län of Göteborg och Bohus, 2"30
kronor per 10 kilometers; in the Läns of Södermanland and Kalmar, 2’20 kronor;
in four Läns, 2-oo kronor; in two Läns, 1’90 kronor, in two Läns, 1’80 kronor,
and in the other Läns, either 1’70 or l’so kronor. In the case of non-contracted
postal-stations, the posting-charges were, as a rule, I’i2 kronor per 10 kilometers.
The average charge for all the posting-stations in the kingdom was 1"75 kronor
per 10 kilometers. — Of the 1 512 posting-stations, 885 were country inns. —
Of all the posting-stations existing in 1905, there were 92 in the towns and
1 460 in the country districts; of the last-mentioned stations, 861 were situated
on high-roads and 599 on village-roads.
4. POST SERVICE.
In Sweden, as in other cultured states, the origin of the postal
service is to be found in the desire of the Government to have its
important business and commands sent throughout the country by means of
specially appointed letter-carriers. During the reigns of the first Yasa
kings, various edicts were issued dealing with such matters. For example,
a proclamation of the year 1556 ordains that free posting shall be granted
to all those persons who were occupied on the business of King and country,
and in 1563 an order was issued that, for the conveyance of the King’s
letter-carriers, there should be employed so-called "utgärd-", or
military-service horses, i. e., such horses as, in times of war, were to be provided as
an equivalent for a fully equipped soldier. These and similar regulations
were intended for the more or less occasional conveyance of the
Government post, and the letter-carriers in question might not, as a rule, be
employed by private individuals. In 1620 was established on behalf of
the King’s governors "a certain ordinary post" for the conveyance of
letters between the governors’ residences and the Court. For this purpose
were to be employed suitable young farmhands who were to enjoy a fixed
wage, clothes, and free victuals, the latter to be provided by the King’s
subjects. In order to establish identity, each such carrier was provided
with a kind of service-badge, the so-called post-arms, an arrangement which
had, however, been in use as early as the 16th century. From 1620, the
year mentioned above, we find the first mention of a post which could be
emploj’ed by the general public on payment of a special fee. This post, which
was intended for the conveyance of letters to and from abroad, ran from
Stockholm—Markaryd (on the borders of Halland, which then belonged
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