Circular delivery company

In postal history, a circular delivery company was a type of company which operated in Great Britain between 1865 and 1869 to deliver circulars and other printed matter at rates lower than the British Post Office charged.

The service was outlawed in 1869 and a new cheaper postage rate for printed matter was introduced in 1870.

[1] Brydone undertook to deliver circulars within the boundaries of Edinburgh and Leith for one farthing each.

In August 1867 the Post Office brought a legal action against the London & Metropolitan Circular Delivery Company for infringing their monopoly, which case they won, and the various companies are thought to have stopped operating by September 1867.

[1] The demand for cheaper rates for printed materials was self-evident and on 1 October 1870 the British Post Office issued the first half penny stamp to pay the new reduced charge for printed papers, the small 1/2d bantam.