Brazilian Mail To Foreign Destinations: from Correio-Mor to UPU

A presentation by Paulo Comelli

6 April 2006

The Collection's Structure

The exhibit shows the evolution of the Brazilian maritime postal communication to foreign destinations, spanning the period from Correio-Mor up to the UPU. Included are representative covers from more than 200 years, depicting the various rates, routes, sailing companies and postal conventions. The exhibit is organized into the following sections:
* Correio-Mor in Brazil (1663-1797)
* Portuguese Mail in Brazil (1798-1828):
- Ports of Origin and Postal Marks
- Anglo-Portuguese Postal Agreement (1810)
- Other Destinations and Routes
* Brazilian Mail (1828-1851)
* British Post Office Agencies (1839-1874) * French Post Office Agencies (1860)
* Navigation Companies (1851-1878)
* Postal Conventions (1853-1876)
* Berne Agreement (1877)
* Universal Postal Union (1879)

The Rates To Foreign Destinations

*1798-1827 - to Portugal, 80 réis (single rate); and to other destinations, owed by the addressee.
*1828-1860 - to all destinations, owed by the addressee.
*1860-1877 - per postal rates with various countries. Starting with French-Brazilian Convention (10.1860), prepayment of postage was compulsory to some countries and optional to others. *01.07.1877 to 31.03.1879 - 260 réis (single rate) to all Berne Agreement countries.
*01.04.1879 - 200 réis (single rate) to all UPU members.

The Postal-Historical Aspects

The Portuguese Royal Ordinances of May 24th and October 26th, 1657 had instituted the office of 'Correio-Mor das Cartas do Mar' (Postman of the Letters of the Sea), granted by the King D. Afonso VI (1643-1683) to the 7th Kingdom's Correio-Mor, Luiz Gomes da Mata Neto. From this moment, Brazil starts receiving national treatment from the Portuguese Government. Previously, the Correio-Mor system. instituted by the King, did not exist in Brazil. The letters were given directly to a ship captain, who used to sign a receipt for their delivery. The majority of letters from this period have an official character and are filed in museums and public archives. In 1797, during the reign of D. Maria I (1734-1816), the Government decided to reserve administration of the Mail to itself. The Decree of January 18th, 1797 and the Edict of March 16th, 1797 extinguished the office of Correio-Mor and incorporated it into the Crown.

After bringing the Mail under State control, D. Maria I promulgated the Edict of January 20th, 1798 creating the 'Regular Maritime Mail between Portugal and Brazil ' and the 'Regular Terrestrial Mail in Brazil'. In May of 1798, the Maritime Mail to Brazil was established using two ships that left Portugal every two months. Since 1798, the postal marks have appeared over the covers.

In 1808, the Prince Regent D. Joao (1767-1826) opened the Brazilian ports to friendly nations (Royal Ordinance of 28.01.1808). This began a period of expanding postal trade between Brazil and Portugal, primarily due to the large number of people (about 15.000) accompanying the Portuguese Royal Family during its period of relocation to Brazil who were maintaining contact with relatives back in Portugal. Since England was a close ally to Portugal during this Napoleonic period, English vessels received authorization to call at Brazilian Ports, in accordance with a Postal Agreement, signed in 1810. For this reason, most of the letters originating from the Colony of Brazil (1798 to 09.1822) and after 09.1822 up to the postal recognition of Brazil's independence in 1828 were sent either to Portugal or to England. Other destinations during this period were very rare.

On March 5th, 1829, Emperor D. Pedro I (1798-1834), annulled all previous legislation underpinning the Brazilian mail system. The main feature of this 1829 Decree was the unification of all postal lines into a 'General Administration of the Mail' and the establishment of a unified system of 'Sea and Terrestrial Mail' postal rates for the whole country. The applicable rate(s) were charged by manuscript annotations on each cover, and merchant ships of all nations were eligible to transport mail abroad to foreign destinations.

The abdication of the Emperor D. Pedro I, on 6.04.1831, started the 2nd Empire and the period known as the Regency because the Crown Prince D. Pedro was only five years old. In 1838, England reached an agreement with the Regencial Government to create British Post Offices in Brazil: at Rio de Janeiro (1839) and at Pernambuco and Bahia (1851). These agencies were closed down on 30.06.1874.

On 23.07.1840, the Prince D. Pedro, although only 14 years old, was declared adult by the Legislative Assembly and ascended to the throne of Brazil as the Emperor D. Pedro II (1825-1891). From that time forward, the country experienced rapid postal development, and the Postal Reform of 1842, introduced the use of prepaid postage stamps throughout Brazil, effective 1.08.1843. The system for sending maritime mail to foreign destinations was not modified until the establishment of French Post Offices in the ports of Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Pernambuco between June-October of 1860 to support the initial implementation of the Brazil-France Postal Convention of 1860.

The year 1851 began a period when organized sailing companies started to transport mail to foreign destinations on a regular schedule from the designated ports of Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Pernambuco. The British 'Royal Mail Steam Packet Company' was the first and, although several other companies tried to compete for this business during the 1850s, none survived more than a few years. Only in 1860, with the advent of the Brazil-France Convention, did another company, the French 'Messageries Impériales', succeed in establishing a commercially viable route. Soon afterwards, Brazil's maritime connection with Europe and North America became increasingly diverse as many other companies tried to provide postal service.

These organized sailing companies often had close ties with the various nations for which they provided transport and postal services, many of the formal postal agreement that Brazil, signed with other nations during 1850-1875 period were intended to strengthen the capacity of these navigation companies to maintain their routes. The first agreement was signed with England in 1853, followed by the one with France in 1860, and then by a number of agreements during the next 15 years.

The world development of the postal communications grew so rapidly, between 1840 arid 1873 that several countries tried, for the first time, to create a multinational organism to regulate postal activities. In 1874, the General Postal Union was underwritten by 22 countries and codified as the Berne Agreement, which Brazil joined in 1.07.1877. This led to a substantial reduction in maritime postal rates, compared to the rates previously in force from the bilateral postal conventions developed between individual nations.

On 1.06.1878, the world community took another step forward when 32 countries signed up to a new agreement known as the 'Universal Postal Union'. The UPU led to a further reduction in maritime rates, and Brazil has applied UPU norms and regulations since 1.04.1879.

Research And Bibliography

The information and data for this exhibit have been obtained from the following sources: Imperial Museum of Petropolis; Brazil National Public Library; Laws, Government Ordinances and official Correspondence of Brazil, Post Office Archives of London, Lloyd's Maritime Atlas, and philatelic publications of Raymond Salles, Rev. Howatt, Alan Robertson, Colin Tabeart, Bertier & Pothion. Henri Tristant, Armando Vieira, J. Van der Linden, George E. Hargest, Jane and Michael Moubray, John L. Dubois, Robert G. Stone, John Parmenter, James A. Mackay, Alessandro Arseni, Geoffrey Osborn, Theron Wierenga and Gilbert Noel.