Italy - Document - 2 documenti AQ Veneziano - 1723

Republic of Venice.
2 AQ documents with the winged lion no. 9269 and 9992, dated 1723.
Brief handwritten notes on the back.

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 already taxed outgoing correspondence, that of its public offices.

The 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: payment of the amount due charged to the sender.

The name derives from the indication AQe, a contraction of the Latin word aquae; the document was issued at the request of the Savi Esecutori alle Acque (Executors of the Waters).

It was a “letter” taxed, in fact pre-taxed: “dacio delli soldi 4 per lettera,” on which—or inside which—the message to be communicated was inserted.
It was supplied to 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 the postage and duty.
What might seem an anomaly—the State taxing itself—actually occurred because the public administration in Venice was run by private individuals who held the post—almost always tax collections—after a competitive bidding process in which they participated at their own expense. They could then recoup the costs by collecting the duties won in the contract.
AQs were therefore a supplementary overcharge to postage and duty, whose collection was entrusted to a “dacier,” a daziario.

The amount of four soldi per letter helped finance the works of dredging and cleaning the riverbeds of the Brenta, Muson and Bottenigo.

AQs were punched at the center, in line with the pin through which they were impaled and stacked, a common practice in Venice.
Shipment with tracked and insured courier.