May 2008

The Stamp Day series is this year devoted to the Royal Decree of Maritime Post (Real Ordenanza del Correo Marítimo) which regulated postal communications between Spain and its overseas domains during the last third of the XVIII century.

Royal Decree
of Maritime Post

The need of establishing tight links between the government of the metropolis and the far away Indies under the reign of Charles III resulted in the compilation of all the regulations of the time in the Royal Decree of Maritime Post and so it is written at the beginning of the document “Maritime post has been regulated by orders, regulations.. I have resolved that these be compiled in a Decree in the terms expressed in the following Treaties and Titles…”

This work is divided into five sections that regulate the duties of administrators and employees of the maritime post service, the mail loading ports, the most useful vessels for shipping mail, the privileges and exemptions of the members of staff and the crime punishments, amongst many other rules, and it became the regulation in force at the time. It was Gerónymo de Grimaldi , Secretary of State and General Supervisor of the Post who drafted the royal decree.

The Real Ordenanza del Correo Marítimo was printed in Madrid in 1777 in the prestigious printing house of Antonio de Sancha, one of the most distinguished printers of the XVIII century. His works stand out for the quality of their paper, the clarity of the print, the typography, the large margins and the beauty of the engravings. In the cover of the decree is depicted the royal coat of arms engraved by Tomás Francisco Prieto, royal engraver to Charles III and a complete authority in the arts world. This is the motif depicted in this stamp.

The Real Ordenanza del Correo Marítimo is part of the old collection of the Library of the Post and Telegraph Museum in Madrid.