FROM CANTON TO COUNTRY

Knitting Switzerland’s cantons together to form a country was a long and complicated process. The first areas to be nationalised were the post, the mint and the revenue and customs, replacing over 450 different currencies with Rappen and Francs.

The army was part-nationalised but the country carried on with 25 different jurisdictions and people at the time were saying it would take until 2000 to sort it all out.

Charging by weight and distance

All Cantonal Post Offices were nationalised in 1 January 1849 and Switzerland’s first national postal rates applied from1 June 1849. Charges ranged from 5 to 20 rappen depending on the weight of the letter and the distance it had to go.

Weight was measured in loths – approximately ½ ounce. Distance was measured in bands called rayons, rather like Royal Mail’s different zones for airmail letters. These bands went from 1-4 Rayons and were expressed in a notional unit of travelling time called the ‘way hour’.