Postal Union

[magmagmag]

Question from far east.

There is a word Postal Union in MT imperial encyclopedia.
I want more information of it.

Please teach me.

 

[Jame]

I think it's a group of worlds that are independent but have a mutual postal service.

As I believe they say where you come from, "Ohayo Gozaimasu."

 

[Condottiere]

I think the purpose, like custom unions, is to remove obstacles to the speedy delivery of communications and packages, and minimize costs, in order to promote trade and exchanges.

 

[kilemall]

I believe the concept of a Postal Union interstellar government comes from a series of scifi short stories about an Earth merchant who figures out that packages go faster the further away the address, so he addresses a package to Alpha Centauri and initiates first contact with the Galactic Confederation, a postal union that ensures basic mail delivery and little else.

http://www.amazon.com/Chap-Foey-Rider-Capitalist-Stars/dp/1587151960

 

[epicenter00]

A Postal Union are nations that have created a group to make communications easier between them. A Postal Union may exist on a single world (if there are many nations or similar groups on it) but I think it mostly implies a group of planets.

In Traveller there is no useful Faster-Than-Light communication. Therefore packages and letters - in other words "mail" - is not only the most effective method of communication and trade, it is often the only method of trade.

The strength of a Postal Union varies, but features of a Postal Union might be:

* Coordination and unification of the mail delivery network - such as a single network of starships to ship mail between worlds. This makes things cheaper by eliminating duplication of effort.

* Common standards - Determining what is legal and what is not legal to send through mail, how money must be paid to send mail to a place, how packages must be labelled, how packages must be secured so that they arrive safely without danger for mail carriers, and similar things.

 

[GypsyComet]

The entry in the MT Imperial Encyclopedia with no attached "GM Only" entry looks like a case of squandered potential, though the same entry is also in the CT Library Data N-Z book.

The concept looks like it could have been useful in the collapsing Imperium, and may also be of immediate use in the Long Night, early Third Imperium, and even the Fourth Imperium of 1248 as old alliances, however mild, cause politics to have easier solutions in some places and more difficult solutions in others.

 

[aramis]

It's worth noting that postal unions on Earth historically tended to not become governments - Alliances, but not governments.

At present, one dominates on Earth. The UPU has been around since the 1874, and, except during a few wars, has managed across-border handoffs of mail between even hostile members.

Note that, post WWII, the IPU was placed under UN authority.

There are even a couple gags about the mail getting through during the shadow war in Babylon 5...

That a Postal Union could become a government of their own? Depends upon how large the postal union is, how small the members are, and if they can be coaxed into funding a serious level of forces to defend the mail.

Postal Unions start to look particularly government-like when they are able to establish a transport monopoly... The Spacing Guild in Dune is almost a shadow government. Note that Edric can, essentially, coerce even the Padishaw Emperor. (Note also: Herbert later realized his logic errors - the spacing guild should have become the empire, given the setup, by simply dropping Arrakis off the map entirely until everyone surrenders. So, he introduced ships that didn't need Spice nor Guild Navigators, and had them banned by convention... which holds the Guild's monopolies in check.)

Key assertion: Any hydraulic despot who controls also the interstellar communications and interstellar transport controls the government.

Corollary: He who controls the postal union in the absence of FTL Comm has a strong leg on the government already.

Corollary and secondary assertion: He who controls FTL comm controls the government, as long as it's faster than shipping.

FTL comm monopoly leading to quasi-government is a common enough trope. Half a dozen short stories and novellas, plus a few games...

Edit: One other thought - the classic "Postal Union as Empire" trope usually leads to confederation type feel - the Postal Union makes certain demands, and aside from them, ignores the locals. Which said demands could include creeping increases in authority over time.

 

[kilemall]

Aramis, the PU of the GC in the stories I cite seems to subtly (or maybe not so much) ignore the governments in favor of free market operators, inducing a power change towards practical self-funding solution sets.

 

[magmagmag]

Thanks

Thank you so much for a lot of comments:rofl:

 

[McPerth]

It's worth noting that postal unions on Earth historically tended to not become governments - Alliances, but not governments.

At present, one dominates on Earth. The UPU has been around since the 1874, and, except during a few wars, has managed across-border handoffs of mail between even hostile members.

Note that, post WWII, the IPU was placed under UN authority.

There are even a couple gags about the mail getting through during the shadow war in Babylon 5...

That a Postal Union could become a government of their own? Depends upon how large the postal union is, how small the members are, and if they can be coaxed into funding a serious level of forces to defend the mail.

Postal Unions start to look particularly government-like when they are able to establish a transport monopoly... The Spacing Guild in Dune is almost a shadow government. Note that Edric can, essentially, coerce even the Padishaw Emperor. (Note also: Herbert later realized his logic errors - the spacing guild should have become the empire, given the setup, by simply dropping Arrakis off the map entirely until everyone surrenders. So, he introduced ships that didn't need Spice nor Guild Navigators, and had them banned by convention... which holds the Guild's monopolies in check.)

Key assertion: Any hydraulic despot who controls also the interstellar communications and interstellar transport controls the government.

Corollary: He who controls the postal union in the absence of FTL Comm has a strong leg on the government already.

Corollary and secondary assertion: He who controls FTL comm controls the government, as long as it's faster than shipping.

FTL comm monopoly leading to quasi-government is a common enough trope. Half a dozen short stories and novellas, plus a few games...

Edit: One other thought - the classic "Postal Union as Empire" trope usually leads to confederation type feel - the Postal Union makes certain demands, and aside from them, ignores the locals. Which said demands could include creeping increases in authority over time.

OTOH, i nnome remote places (mostly with limited communications), the postal service might well be the main (where not the only) link for the community with the government, so being seen by the people as the de facto government representative.

Think in Kostner's The Postman film...

 

[DonM]

Marc wrote an article about Postal Unions... "Dealing with the Concepts of Empires", which appears in Dragoneer #10, I believe (Jan-Feb '79).

But it's not much...

The Postal Union
"Or perhaps the Imperium will do very little, possible only maintain the mail routes and encourage the extraterritoriality of starports in order to encourage trade and commerce. In fact, in one guise, the Imperium might well be called the Pan-Galactic Postal Union, with delivery time, across the galaxy, of a single first class tape, of a little over a hundred years."

So probably not all that helpful. I remembered the reference though.