The British Post Office is far and away the biggest business undertaking in the British Empire ; and it is none the less a business enterprise because it is a Government Department. It began with no capital, and (with the exception of 32 millions exclusively on telegraph and telephone account) it has no debt, although it now possesses many million pounds' worth of land, buildings and plant; and the enterprise, as a whole, which thus represents an extremely valuable national piece of saving, could certainly be sold, any day, on the basis of the annual profits, to an American or other capitalist syndicate for ;£ 100,000,000. It began by merely carrying a few letters for the King. It now performs dozens of different services for the use and convenience of the public, which vc willingly buy at the price of nearly ¿32,000,000 annually ; and no single purchaser at the Post Office shop ever doubts that he gets good value in return for his expenditure. Thus the £3 2,000,000 of Post Office rTable of Contents The Development of the Post Office i; CHAPTER II A Public Service of Railway and Canal Transport 5 r; CHAPTER III The Nationalisation of the Coal Supply 113; CHAPTER IV A State Insurance Department1S1; CHAPTER V A Revolution in the Income Tax2J9; INDEX273; I Introduction; II The Tost Office as the Common Carrier:; {a) Systematic Revision and Simplification of Postal Rates and Regulations; (l>) Adoption of the newest and most effective Apparatus and riant; (c) Development of Special Letter Services; (d) Newspaper Deliver)' in Country Places {e) Extension of the Tared Tost; (f) Lower Rates for Local Delivery; (g) "Collect on Delivery"; III The post Office as the Common Banker:; (a) The Postal Cheque System {d) Increase in the Rate of Interest; (e) Development of the Banking and Remittance Business; (d) The Traveller's Letter of Credit; IV The Post Office as thf Common Dekt Coilpctor V Thf Post Office as the Comm