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A postal authority organises collection and delivery of domestic mail (US), or post (UK), within its area of control, or in the case of foreign mail, delivery to or receipt of mail from other postal authorities.

Payment for the service has been performed in many ways. Most commonly, since the introduction of postage stamps in the United Kingdom in 1840, and later in other countries, the sender buys a small label (i.e., a postage stamp) that he affixes to the letter or package. The label is "stamped" with the postmark of the local post office and, after sorting, the letter is taken to its destination and delivered to the recipient. Before postage stamps were introduced, it was generally the recipient who paid for the letter on delivery. There are other schemes in place such as freepost, called "business reply mail" in some countries, which are variations of payment on delivery in that an organisation issues either pre-paid envelopes to its clients or customers in advance of them sending an order or a payment, or issue special envelopes that are paid for by the business or organisation when they are returned by the client.

In medieval times, posts were controlled by rulers and indeed a public post was almost unheard of. If a common person wanted to send a letter to someone in a distant town, he had to rely on a traveller to take it there, usually for a small fee. It might be possible, if the sender had sufficient influence, to have his letter delivered by a royal courier or perhaps by a merchant. Royal and merchant posts were usually delivered by parallel systems.

Monarchs of the time recognised the need to control all aspects of their domains and the transfer of information was certainly a prime concern. As a result, the so-called Royal Posts were established in most of the advanced countries such as England and France. The French King Louis XI (ruled 1461-1483), the notorious "Universal Spider", took a particular interest in the progress of his messages and established a system of staging posts, usually at inns or perhaps at remote farms, where his messengers could quickly exchange horses, leaving one in stable and taking a fresh one for the next stage of his journey. This reduced delivery times considerably.

Merchant posts originated in Renaissance Italy and had spread throughout Europe by the end of the 16th Century. These posts were a natural adjunct to trading missions but in time they became independent of trade and regular delivery services were established.

The royal and merchant posts were thus the earliest postal authorities. Gradually, the services were opened up to the public. In England, this was achieved in 1657 by means of a Post Office Act, which was consolidated by a subsequent Act of 1660 that established the famous Royal Mail. The main principle of this legislation was that the (General) Post Office which controlled the Royal Mail service was a state monopoly under the control of the Postmaster-General, an appointed government official.

The practice of "stamping" letters with a postmark was established at the outset to check on speed and reliability of delivery. Each letter handed to the Post Office at one of its many branches would be "stamped" with the date that the letter was handed in. In due course, the postmarks included the name of the receiving post office.

England's Post Office was the first postal authority in the modern sense. The Penny Post which introduced postage stamps was also a British innovation in 1840. The British model of main and sub-post offices under a central government-controlled authority has spread worldwide, as has the use of postage stamps.

There are, however, different types of postal authority and stamps have been issued by:

• national governments;
• city, state, territorial, provincial or colonial authorities;
• groups of countries with common issues under a combined postal authority;
• occupation forces;
• foreign post offices;
• revolutionary regimes;
• international organisations.

See also: Category:Compendium of postage stamp issuers

• Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
• Encyclopaedia of Postal Authorities
• Stuart Rossiter & John Fowler (1991 reprint). World History Stamp Atlas. pub: Black Cat. ISBN 0-7481-0309-0.