International postal services and the regulatory framework

Prior to the sixteenth century international postal communications were controlled by a variety of private and state enterprises. Often the mails were carried across foreign territories by nationals of the states of origin or destination. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the sovereign states of Europe took over almost all postal services and formed Royal Posts and began to bar foreigners from carrying international mails on their territories. These moves were due to governments' perceptions that it was politically important to control the flow of information within their territories and that significant revenues could be earned from the posts. On these matters one author has written that the decision to create royal postal monopolies was “primarily political and designed to prevent secret communication of the King's enemies at home and abroad.” However, a desire to raise revenues for state treasuries was also an important motivation.

During the seventeenth century states began to enter into bilateral postal agreements that dealt not only with bilateral flows but also with situations in which letters and parcels were carried across their territories to third countries. Central features of these accords were that mail was only carried across states' territories by their own postal authorities, fees were paid to transit states, and states assumed liability for damages to or loss of mail items carried by their postal authorities.