Italy - Document - 2 documenti manoscritti - 1626

Republic of Venice.
2 AQ documents with the Winged Lion no. 2335 (D. Paolo Buratta) dated 1706 and no. 4165 dated 1624.
With handwritten notes.

Measurements 29.5 x 20.5 cm
Good condition as shown in the photo.

Two centuries before Rowland Hill’s postal reform, the Serenissima Republic of Venice was already taxing outgoing correspondence from its public offices.

AQ can be considered the progenitor of the stamp and of the entire postal system, 230 years before the Penny Black and the Mulready. It anticipated a revolutionary idea: the payment of the amount due to be borne by the sender.

The name derives from the indication AQe, a truncation of the Latin aquae; the document was issued at the request of the Savi Esecutori alle Acque.

It was a taxed letter, in fact pre-taxed: “dacio delli soldi 4 per lettera,” on which—either on the outside or inside—the message to be communicated had to be inserted.

It was part of the equipment of all the chancelleries of the state magistracies, which, with a few exceptions, were obliged to use it for their postal correspondence, after paying four soldi, in addition to postage and duty.

What might seem an anomaly—the state taxing itself—actually occurred because Venice’s public administration was run by private individuals who held the office—almost always tax collection—after a bidding process in which they paid out of their own pockets. They could then recoup expenses by collecting the duties won in the contract.

AQs were therefore an additional surcharge on top of postage and duty, whose collection was supervised by a dacier, a daziary.

The four soldi per letter was used to finance works for the reclamation and cleaning of the beds of the Brenta, Muson, and Bottenigo rivers.

AQs were punched in the center, at the point where the pin was passed through and stacked—a fairly widespread practice in Venice.

Shipment with tracked and insured courier.