The Universal Postal Union, founded by the Congress at Bern in 1874. constitutes a single territory for the reciprocal exchange of correspondence between the Postal Departments of the nations present at the Congress. Its scope has been further enlarged and developed by succeeding conventions and conferences at Bern (1876), Paris (1880). Lisbon (1885). Vienna (1891), and Washington (1897); today it comprises all the states and all the colonies having organized postal systems, including nearly the whole world.

To the chief convention of the Union, regulating the exchange of letters, postal cards, printed matter, official papers and samples have from time to time been added, special arrangements concluded between the most of the members having for their object the international interchange of letters and packages possessing a declared value, postal money orders, postal packages and collections, together with a passport service and a department for the subscription to journals and other publications.

A central office, created by the Congress at Bern, has its seat in that city and is known under the name of The International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union. It performs its labors under the supervision of the Swiss Postoffice Department. The ordinary annual expenses of this office were first fixed at 75,000 francs, later advanced to 100.000 and finally increased to 125,000 francs, by the Congress of Vienna. The funds are provisionally advanced by the Swiss Government, which is reimbursed by all the contracting parties in proportion to their importance.

This bureau is charged with collecting, co-ordinating, publishing and distributing information of whatever nature appertaining to international postal affairs. Its duties are also to issue, upon the demand of any one of the members of the Union, a note upon questions in litigation, to examine into the demands for the modification of the acts of the Congress to give notice of any adopted changes, and in general, to proceed with the studies and labors with which it is seized in the interest of the postal union. It prepares a table of general statistics for each year; it edits a special journal "L'Union postale" in the German, French, and English languages; it prepares the work of the Congresses or Conferences, publishes and keeps up to date a dictionary of all the postoffices in the world, and attends to the balancing and liquidation of the accounts between the various postal administrations which have declared their willingness to make use of it as an intermediary. The total amount of the liquidations in 1902 reached the considerable sum of 49,-113,785.57 francs ($9,822,757.11). Throughout the territorv controlled by the Union, 24,061,000.000 pieces were exchanged in 1901; of these 51 000,000 were letters and packages having a declared value of 45,283,000,000 francs ($9,056,600,000); 460,000,000 postal orders were sent, amounting to 24.-147,000,000 francs ($4,829,800,000); moreover, 2,275,000 000 journals were delivered through the postal bureau for subscriptions to such publications.