364 Tradesman and Merchant — Commercial Population 



and sought public patronage by advertising.^ The "Stage-coachmen 

 upon the grand roads of England" were derived from and fostered by 

 other trades, such as the innholders, the coach and harness makers, 

 and the licensed coachmen of London .^ The rise of the stage-coach 

 was opposed by a large part of the people on the grounds that it would 

 destroy the breed of good horses, destroy good horsemanship, lessen 

 the king's revenues, etc.;^ but it became the most common means of 

 travel in the eighteenth century .'* 



Post Office. Another line of carrier activity pushed by the trading 

 classes was the postal service. The early English Post Office had a 

 poHtical and mihtary origin, but the carriage of mail for private parties 

 was used to help defray the expense of the royal mail. 



In 1638 Thomas Withering laid the basis of modern postal systems; 

 his reforms were to provide for the carriage of private letters at fixed 

 rates, to increase the speed of the posts, and to put the Post Office on 

 a successful financial footing. The Civil Wars worked a general con- 

 fusion and disorganization of postal carriage. Under the Common- 

 wealth the Post Office was farmed out. In 1657 one general Post 

 Ofiice of England was established and put under one Postmaster 

 General nominated and appointed by the Protector for an indefinite 

 term not exceeding eleven years.^ 



The postal system was highly centralized. London was the point 

 all letters passed. Rates were imposed in 1660 on the assumption 

 that all letters passed to, from or through London. A letter, instead 

 of going directly from Bristol to Exeter, 80 miles apart, went first to 

 London and then to Exeter, travelHng 300 miles.^ In 1661 Bisshopp 

 reported eight "Clerks of the Road" — ^men who had care of the dis- 

 patching of mail by each of the four great Roads — two of the Northern, 

 two of the Chester, two of the Eastern, and two of the Western Road; 

 in 1677 the Kent and the Bristol Roads were added. '^ Cross-post 



^ Sampson, 77, 80, contains exemplary advertisemenls of their services in 

 1672-3. See descriptions of the service in " Grand Concern," 25 et seq. 



- " Grand Concern," 40. 



^ Ibid., 25 et seq. 



^ The government of London and of England regulated the prices, number of 

 horses, width of tires, size of loads, etc.; see 3-4 \A'. & M., Cap. 12; 9 .\nne, Cap. 18; 

 5 Geo. I, Cap. 12. 



^ For full accomit see Hemmeon, 14-24. 



^Hemmeon, 138-9. Roads between Dover and Portsmouth, Portsmouth and 

 Salisburj-, London and Yarmouth, and London and Carhsle through Lancaster were 

 established in 1652. See Cal. S. P. Dom., 1652-3: 312. 



' Tombs, 22; Hemmeon, 27, 101. 



