The postal system is the totality of transportation and distribution of written news as it has evolved over the last 500 years.
The concept of post-
The term Post, Italian posta ( posita of latin set ') originally meant the exchange stations of the postal system.
The term post was made through a 500 -year-old letter monopoly to a general word of German. The "post " is part of a functioning community, which has been reflected also in theater, music, painting and literature. With the abolition of monopolies in telecommunications and letters, however, solves the close substantive relationship with the formerly state-owned postal authority.
The traditional postal companies convey messages and small goods, mail and sometimes people ( in Austria with postal buses ). They were state-run mostly in Europe, but in the meantime the state logistics companies are often privatized or on the way, such as in Germany.
Most also carry out money transactions and certificate stores is made ( for example, proof of identity ). Also, fax, e -mail, and other services are often offered by the post office.
The term is also used for transportation types of all kinds. Thus it can be distinguished according to
- The operator, owner: State post office, country post office, local post, internal mail (internal correspondence with authorities and companies)
- The target: domestic mail, foreign mail
- The delivery period: Morning Post, Evening Post, late mail, overnight mail (today is usually only delivered once daily for the presence of faster means of communication. )
- The purpose of: Postal Service, business mail, postal management, business mail, private mail
- The means of transport used: web mail, air mail, balloon mail, post office force, ship mail, pneumatic tube
- Technological aspects: Connection Post, Express Mail, feeder post
- The user group: Field Post, official mail, courier mail, in the Middle Ages also Metzger Post, the Teutonic Knights
- Information in books of the 19th century: driving post, riding post, express post.
Also for newspapers of the 17th century found the word post, as the example of Leipzig Post and Ordinar newspaper shows. This is still the case: for example, Washington Post, Rheinische Post.
In the age of electronic data processing, the concept of electronic mail was (E -mail to english mail, mail ') transmitted.
History
Postal companies today
See there for the respective postal services of the various countries.