The Origins of a Free Press in Prerevolutionary ... - Web Publishing

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Postal service was an extremely vital communications tool and was an
important factor in the development of colonial newspapers. 33 Most news had to
come from England in the first half of the eighteenth century, as the colonial postal
service was not well developed and interchange between Virginia and the middle
and northern colonies took place primarily via London. This pattern contributed
toward determining the European character of information in the public prints.
Newspapers were sent by the same methods as private letters, either by post or by
ship, thus spreading news that could be printed in other newspapers. At the
beginning of the eighteenth century, letters to and from Virginia were carried
primarily by ship captains who also transported tobacco to and supplies from
England. An early law required each plantation along the river to pass mail on to
the next settlement upriver. 34 There were no direct postal deliveries from the other
colonies. Early attempts to set up inter-colonial service failed to reach as far south
as Maryland. By 1695, the mails extended to the Potomac River, but regular mail
service from the colonies to the north still did not reach Virginia. The British Post
Office Act of 1710 attempted to standardize service and raise money. Rates went
up substantially with the new system. Ship captains had carried letters to England
for 1 or 2 pence, but the new minimum was now supposed to be 1 shilling. 35 Some
Virginia residents viewed the new postal requirements as taxation without
representation, as Parliament passed the new regulation without input from the
colonial representatives, but the new postal act was primarily ignored in the colony.
This early royal postal service was not able to extend to Virginia, as local opposition
to the higher fees was too strong and the service from tobacco ships was
33 Wallace B. Eberhard, “Press and Post Office in Eighteenth-Century America: Origins of a
Public Policy,” in Bond, Newsletters to Newspapers, 145-154.
34 Moryson, Lawes of Virginia Now in Force (1662), 52. This act was apparently repealed in
1705, Collection of All the Acts of Assembly … Virginia [1661-1732], ch. 53.
35 In the British currency of the time, there were 12 pence (abbreviated d.) to the shilling (s)
and twenty shillings to the pound (£), or 240 pence to the pound.