The (El-Barid El-Maṣri) is the governmental agency responsible for postal
service in Egypt. Established in 1865, it is one of the oldest governmental
institutions in the country.
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| TOUT ANKH AMON |
History
Modern Egyptian postal service
began when Carlo Meratti, an Italian, living in Alexandria, established a post
office to send and receive mail to and from foreign countries as early as 1821.
Meratti took the responsibility of sending and distributing the letters for a
price. He transferred his activity to Cairo and Alexandria through his office
in Saint Catherine Square near Hannaux (formerly Qansal Square). After
Meratti's departure his nephew, Tito Chini (who agreed with the importance of
the project) succeeded his uncle with a friend, Giacomo Muzzi. The two partners
upgraded the project, naming it the Posta Europea.
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| POSTA EUROPEA EGYPT STAMP |
The post office began sending,
receiving and delivering correspondence from the government and individuals,
and the Posta Europea earned the public trust. At the inauguration of the first
railway between Alexandria and Kafr el-Zayyat in 1845 the company established
branches in Cairo, Atfeih, and Rashid (Rosetta), followed by another two
branches (in Damanhour and Kafr El Zayyat) in 1855. When the railway was
extended from Kafr El Zayyat to Cairo (via Tanta, Benha and Birket el-Sab), the
company exploited this opportunity and used the railways to carry the post
between Cairo and Alexandria for a five-year contract, beginning in January
1856. The contract was as a monopolistic franchise to transport the post to
northern Egypt, where it stipulated a fine to be paid to the Posta Europea by
anyone caught pilfering mail.
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| KHEDIVE ISMAIEL |
Khedive Ismaiel realized the
importance of the Posta Europea and purchased it from Muzzi (after the
departure of his partner, Tito Chini) on October 29, 1864. The Egyptian
government offered Muzzi the position of general manager of the post and on
January 2, 1865, the private Posta Europea was transferred to the Egyptian
government. This date is noted as Post Day.
Government administration
At it's beginning, Egypt Post was
affiliated with the Ministry of Occupations; it was then transferred to a
succession of ministries, and in 1865 Egypt Post was attached to the Ministry
of Finance. On September 28, 1876, Egypt Post was put under the purview of the
Rulings Council Chief and the Ministers of Interior and Finance. On May 19,
1875 it joined the Ministry of Justice and Trade and the Ministry of Finance
again on December 10, 1878. The regulations related to the organization of a
post office was issued by the Ministry of Finance on December 21, 1865,
stipulating that transferring mail and issuing post stamps was the exclusive
job of the Egyptian government. In March 1876 a decree was issued for all post
offices providing all employees with two uniforms: one for work and the other
for ceremonies. The decree was amended to specify the model and type of the
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| EARLY AIR-MAIL STAMP |
In 1919, Law No. 7 was passed for
the Ministry of Transportation appropriate the railways, telegraph, telephones,
postal authority, ports, and road and air transportation. Comprehensive Law No.
9 was issued later to set fees for transporting the post and the
postal-management headquarters was moved from Alexandria to Cairo, to it's
building in Al-Ataba Square.
Since its establishment, the post
(in addition to its regular postal activity) has sold salt and soda stamps
(discontinued in 1899), steamboat tickets, debt and shares coupons, stamped
paper, and telegraph and telephone service in return for fees paid to the
Telephone Authority.
The Post in the 20th century
In 1934 the 10th conference of the
Universal Postal Union was held in Cairo, on the 70th anniversary of the
Egyptian Post. After the July 1952 revolution a separate budget was allocated
for the post, giving it the right to direct its surplus revenues toward
improving and boosting the postal service.
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| POSTA EUROPEA |
In 1957 Presidential Decree No.
710 was issued, establishing the Egyptian Post Authority to replace the
previous postal authority. In 1959 the civil-services system (including local
post offices and agencies) began, and in 1961 a secondary postal school was
established by presidential decree. In 1965 the Institute of Postal Affairs was
also established; in 1975, it joined the trade department at Helwan University.
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| YOUNG KING FAROUK |
In 1966 a presidential decree was
issued establishing the General Post Authority to replace the Egyptian Post
Authority, and in 1970 Law No. 16 was passed regulating the Egyptian post. 1982
saw the issuance of Law No. 19 establishing the National Post Authority,
replacing the General Post Authority and attaching it to the Ministry of
Transportation.
Ministerial Decree No. 70, in
1982, was a special regulation concerning Post Authority's personnel; Decree
No. 55 that same year regulated the authority's finances. In 1999 the Ministry
of Communications and Information Technology was established to supervise the
National Post Authority, Egypt Telecom and the National Communications
Institute.
SAVING
In 1861, Great Britain became the
first nation to offer such an arrangement. Sir Rowland Hill, who successfully
advocated the penny post, and William Ewart Gladstone, and then Chancellor of
the Exchequer, who saw it as a cheap way to finance the public debt, supported
it. At the time, banks were mainly in the cities and largely catered to wealthy
customers. Rural citizens and the poor had no choice but to keep their funds at
home or on their persons.
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| Commemoration of King Farouk wedding |
The British system first offered
only savings accounts. In 1880, it also became a retail outlet for government
bonds, and in 1916 introduced war savings certificates, which were renamed
National Savings Certificates in 1920. In 1956, it launched a lottery bond, the
Premium Bond, which became its most popular savings certificate.
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| TAHA HUSSEIN |
Post Office Savings Bank became
National Savings Bank in 1969, later renamed National Savings and Investments
(NS&I), an agency of HM Treasury. While continuing to offer National
Savings services, the (then) General Post Office, created the National Giro in
1968 (privatized as Girobank and acquired by Alliance & Leicester in 1989).
Many other countries adopted such
systems soon afterwards. Japan established a postal savings system in 1875 and
the Netherlands government started systems in 1881.
Egypt implemented the saving
system not much later. Low-income individuals, mainly in rural areas where no
commercial banks are easily available make deposits into the Postal Authority
savings fund striving postal system, which remains in function until today. Operations
have evolved to include ATM’s and Debit cards in every imaginable little division
in a village.
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| First Egyptian stamp issued on 1 January 1866. |
