Rapport au Ministre des Finances sur l'Administration des Postes Extrait de L'Annuaire des Postes de 1865

The document opens as a formal address to the French Minister of Finance, dated November 1864, and it offers a meticulous accounting of the recent reforms in the national postal service. Within a few pages, the author lays out striking growth figures: revenues climbing from 63 to 75 million francs and the total number of items transported rising by more than a quarter in just four years, with Paris alone accounting for a 53 % surge. Detailed tables break down letters, newspapers, parcels and money orders, giving listeners a clear picture of the scale of the empire’s correspondence network.

In addition to the numbers, the report reflects the broader social and economic forces driving the changes. It argues that the postal monopoly must adapt to the expanding needs of commerce, rural communities, and the emerging telegraph, urging the creation of new offices and the deployment of rural carriers. Listeners will hear a vivid snapshot of how mid‑nineteenth‑century France wrestled with modernizing its communications infrastructure, revealing both the ambitions and the challenges of a rapidly industrializing nation.