Editing Uniform Penny Post (section)

==Rowland Hill's reforms==
[[Rowland Hill]] expounded his concept for the reformed service at a meeting of the commission on February 13, 1837, and published a famous pamphlet ''Post Office Reform: its Importance and Practicability'' late that year. <!--  See WP the bio article for the evidence of this chronology, which differs from the inconsistent one i found here. -->In 1838 Hill made a proposal to parliament in which he suggested that "the postage on all letters received in a post-town, and delivered in the same, or any other post-town in the British Isles, shall be at the uniform rate of one penny per half ounce".<ref>{{cite book  | last = Richardson | first = Alan J. | title = Organizational founding, strategic renewal and the role of accounting: Management accounting concepts in the formation of the "Penny Post." | publisher = Schulich School of Business, York University | location = Toronto, [[Canada|CA]] | page =  26}}</ref> However, Hill did not include a specific timetable for the introduction of a "penny post" in his proposal, nor did he suggest a plan for its implementation.  Nonetheless, Hill's 1838 proposal paved the way for the [[Post Office (Duties) Act 1840]] ([[3 & 4 Vict.]] c. 96) which introduced the Uniform Penny Post.

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 postage, at a time when prepayment was optional.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://postalheritage.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/rowland-hill%E2%80%99s-postal-reforms/ | date = Aug 21, 2009 | publisher = Word press | title = The British Postal Museum & Archive | contribution = Rowland Hill’s Postal Reforms}}</ref> Previously, postage had depended on distance and the number of sheets of paper; now, one penny would assure delivery of an envelope and the letter it enclosed anywhere in the country provided together they satisfied the weight condition.  This was a lower rate than before, when the cost of postage was usually more than 4d (four pence). The reform did not settle the issue of who paid for the postage, as it still remained optional for a number of years in spite of Hill's efforts as Secretary to the Post Office to alter the situation.

{{As of|2013}} the value of one penny in 1840 ranges from 32p to £4.89; the latter based on mean income. It would appear that the cost to an established semi-skilled man of sending a letter in 1840 can be represented by approximately £1 in 2013 values.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.measuringworth.com/ |title=Measuring Worth Is a Complicated Question |accessdate=2023-04-07 |website=measuringworth.com}}</ref>

This however was a lower cost than previously and made postal communication more affordable to the increasing numbers of people capable of reading and writing as a consequence of [[public education]]. Financially, the penny post scheme initially was a disaster. However, Hill made the case that if letters were cheaper to send, people, including the poorer classes, would send more of them, thus eventually profits would go up.<ref name="Post revolutionary">{{cite news |title=The Penny Post revolutionary who transformed how we send letters |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48844278 |access-date=14 August 2019 |agency=BBC}}</ref> In 1840, the first year of Penny Post, the number of letters sent in the UK more than doubled.<ref name="Post revolutionary"/> Within 10 years, it had doubled again. The [[BBC]] states, “Hill had shown that the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid was there to be mined.”<ref name="Post revolutionary"/>  The other benefits were the encouragement and support that the availability of cheap letterpost communication gave to the development of transport links, education, commerce and social cohesion.{{Citation needed|date=September 2009}}