51

Under the Ancien Régime some European powers had organized their own postal services with Constantinople. After the Napoleonic experience, although there was still no internationally agreed collaboration among the various postal administrations, a new organization of postal services emerged in Europe based on a network of offices, services and increasingly modern methods. Lack of communications with the Ottoman world persisted, however, and this affected the European communities who had moved there to develop commerce and who needed regular and secure communications with Western Europe and its markets. Two things accelerated the creation of a postal infrastructure capable of linking the economic activities of both regions. One was the result of technological development in the form of steam navigation and the other was the emergence of a new set of political-military circumstances. As a result, from 1837 to 1914, France, Austria, Russia, Great Britain, Italy and Germany as well as Greece, Egypt and Romania, created their own post offices in the main Ottoman cities. They operated under their own metropolitan rules but were open to all. Such offices proved to be useful for the economic expansion of the European communities in the region and, above all, for the development of trade with the European economy. They were also an important tool for the geographic and financial expansion of European and local banks. In addition, post offices themselves became an engine of economic growth and played a considerable political role as vectors of prestige and influence.