It is perhaps not coincidental that the rise of parcel post around the world and the development of standardised cardboard boxes that can be easily customised to the exact size, shape and fit you need began at around the same time.

Corrugated cardboard was first used in 1856, but it was not until Robert Gair accidentally invented pre-cut cardboard boxes in the 1870s that it became widely used. 

They would quickly evolve from there to become the standard medium for packaging glass and pottery, before being used to house practically anything when the parcel post required a lightweight, affordable solution.

However, parcels and packages needed to be sent for thousands of years before the parcel post was implemented in 1883 by then Postmaster-General Henry Fawcett. 

These makeshift and ad-hoc courier systems were not only remarkably sophisticated and history-changing, but they also would influence the parcel post as we know it today.

Here are some of the earliest parcel post innovations and how they influenced modern parcel boxes.

Private Courier Services

General John Pershing famously said that whilst infantry wins battles, logistics win wars, and the same can be said for the foundations of society and the implementation of courier services.

For as long as people have had stable dwellings, there has been a need to send and receive messages, and whilst rulers had dedicated and remarkably sophisticated message systems, everyone else needed to rely on their own couriers to deliver goods.

With no standards, there could sometimes be issues and disputes. Rather famously, the first complaint letter ever written, from the copper trader Nanni to the now-infamous Ea-nasir, was in regard to delivery delays, poor quality ingots, and abuse by the latter of the former’s servant.

Written on a cuneiform tablet in Akkadian, the complaint also presumably needed to be sent to Ea-nasir via private courier to his home in the royal city of Ur.

Relay Posthouses

One of the first huge innovations in parcel post is the development of relay stations and posthouses, which meant that messengers did not have to travel the entire length of a delivery in one go but could transfer a package or parcel to someone else to continue the journey as quickly as possible.

Whilst this was perfected by the short-lived Pony Express in 1860, early relay systems were used in China, Persia and especially Ancient Rome.

The cursus publicus was perhaps the most complex and effective courier system in the ancient world, used by the military and the government to transport messages and goods at breathtaking speeds thanks to the effectiveness of the Roman road network.

A variation of this delivery system exists today in the form of the hub and spoke model, where parcels are quickly and efficiently delivered to postal depots before being distributed to post offices and finally the last mile to their destination.

The Butcher’s Post

Between the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD and the establishment of the Kaiserliche Reichspost in 1490, the courier service entered a period of significant decline and would largely start from scratch when it came to delivering parcels.

Most major institutions would develop a messenger corps that would be able to deliver messages, post and parcels within their particular area and to serve their particular needs.

This spread to the guilds, most notably the Butcher’s Guild (Metzger) in many southern regions of Germany, which became the de facto postal service before the development of a more formal system.

The Butcher’s Guild already transported heavy goods in the form of livestock, using a horn to announce their presence, and many butchers would take letters and other goods whilst on their way to deliver meat and livestock.

Whilst initially a relatively ad hoc service more in line with private couriers, some cities and guilds formalised the service and made the Butcher’s Post the official postal service for letters, typically paid for on a per-mile service.

Parcels and packages needed to be packed as safely as possible to handle the jolts and the hustle of livestock, which would shape the needs of parcel packaging going forward.

Penny Post

Many early courier services involved either paying the individual on a delivery-by-delivery basis or the courier taking payment in exchange for delivery of the item. This caused a lot of complications and additional costs, which meant that only a few particularly rich individuals used the potentially highly effective postal service.

Following local experiments which highlighted the success and economy of lowering costs and requiring prepayment of postal charges, Sir Rowland Hill suggested that all letters should be prepaid and cost a penny per half-ounce.

This led to a uniform and universal postal service, which would become a parcel post service by the end of the century.