IN DAYS GONE BY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11478, 10 January 1903, Page 7

IN DAYS GONE BY.

Some interesting sidelights, says the "Magazine of Commerce," are thrown on the conditions under which commerce was carried on in London two centuries ago by a curious little volume entitled "The Compleat Tradesman, or Exact Dealers' Daily Companion," "Composed by N.H., Merchant in the City of London," and "Printed at the -Black Raven, over against, the Stocks Market," in the year 1684. The*efficiency of the post office towards the close of the seventeenth century evokes "the author's admiration. . In illustration of its perfection he appends a list of the mails despatched during the week from the General Post Office in Lombard street, adding that the profits are, by Act of Pariiament, settled on the Duke of York. "On Monday mails and packets leave for France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Flanders, Sweedland, Denmark, Kent, and the Downs, on Tuesday for Holland, Germany Sweedlahd, Denmark, Ireland, Scotland, and all parts of England and Wales; on Wednesday for all parts of Kent and the Downs; on Thursday for France, Spain, Italy, and all parts of England and Scotland; on Friday for Flanders, Germany. Italy, Sweedland, Denmark, Holland, Kent, and the Downs; and on Saturday for all parts of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. The conveyance by post," we are told, "is done in so short time, by night as well as by day, that in 24 hours the post goes 120 miles, a_d~in five days an answer to a letter may be had from a place 300 miles distant from the writer.''