Editing Mail (section)

=== Postal reforms ===
[[File:Penny black.jpg|thumb|upright=0.65|The [[Penny Black]], the world's first postage stamp]]
{{see also|Uniform Fourpenny Post|Uniform Penny Post}}
In the United Kingdom, prior to 1840 letters were paid for by the recipient and the cost was determined by the distance from sender to recipient and the number of sheets of paper rather than by a countrywide flat rate with weight restrictions. [[Rowland Hill (postal reformer)|Sir Rowland Hill]] reformed the postal system based on the concepts of [[Uniform Penny Post|penny postage]] and prepayment.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.postalmuseum.org/collections/rowland-hill-postal-reforms/ |title=Rowland Hill's Postal Reforms |work=The British Postal Museum & Archive |access-date=22 January 2023 |url-status=live |archive-date=22 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122034542/https://www.postalmuseum.org/collections/rowland-hill-postal-reforms/ }}</ref> In his proposal, Hill also called for official pre-printed [[Mulready stationery|envelopes]] and adhesive [[postage stamp]]s as alternative ways of getting the sender to pay for the postage, at a time when prepayment was optional, which led to the invention of the postage stamp, the [[Penny Black]].