The 16th century was a time of amazing transformation in Europe. The Dark Ages were gone, the Black Death had run its course, and the fears and superstitions of the Dark Ages were slowly fading away. The printing press had been invented and was completely revamping the way people communicated. Columbus had discovered America and the great age of exploration was in full swing. Medical advances, the Reformation, the creation of the great Italian banking houses and Dutch trading companies had completely changed the way people thought, worked and worshiped.
And yet there was one area where there had been virtually no progress since the time of Christ: transportation. Horse or mule, horse-drawn carts, and boats were the methods of travel used to transport people, goods, and food. The journey was slow. It was uncomfortable. And, it was often very dangerous. Bandits and pirates clashed little in the way of organized surveillance. One bandit practically had a picnic during the period.
Of all the difficulties facing a traveler, by far the most frustrating was speed: or lack thereof. As the great Florentine, Venetian, and Genoese commercial banks financed war, fleets, harvests, expeditions, and colonization, they had to continually factor a risk premium into their risk/reward calculations before setting the interest to be paid. would charge on each loan. The slow pace of receiving news of progress, success or failure in the state of an investment vehicle was distressing for all parties involved in a company. Has the fleet sunk or are you close to home with valuable cargo? Has the battle been waged and who won? Was a new land discovered and what did it offer in minerals or trade goods as materials for profit?
Knowledge is power, and speed provides the advantage that makes this power so important. If I know today what my enemy or rival will not know for several days, I have a distinct advantage in strategizing to my advantage and benefit. In the 16th century, an industrious Belgian family developed the first international service to address the age-old problem of slow communication.
The Tassis family had obtained the rights to run a rudimentary postal service in various duchies in what is now Belgium. The service promised a decent life for the Tassis family by the standards of the time. However, they wanted to do more, expand and create a service that could become the international standard.
The Tassis family divided work responsibilities among family members and had them dispersed throughout Europe. Key to its success was a cohesive and standardized system of fleet horses, experienced and responsible riders, a network of terminals for changing horses, riders, and diverting mail and packages, and scheduled delivery times. Spain, France, Italy, and Germany were little more than a polyglot of feudal city-states during this time. There was no central government to run a service like mail delivery that we now consider routine. The opportunity for a private company to organize and manage an international operation of this importance and scale was wonderful.
The Tassis were given contracts to handle mail delivery throughout most of continental Europe. From Naples to the Danube and from Gibraltar to Copenhagen, the family built a delivery network that managers at DHL, UPS or FedEx would admire and recognize today. A treaty, legal contract, or purchase order that took five weeks to reach Genoa from Madrid could now be delivered in seven to ten days. As the loads increased, the price was lowered and this only accelerated the use of the service.
The family became rich, powerful and throughout Europe they became members of the aristocracy. The name Tassis in German is written “taxis”.
Nowadays, all over the world, people call for a taxi when they need to get around to pay for a ticket. The taxi service created by the Tassis was an important part of the development of the Renaissance.
The Tassis are responsible for one of the most basic and important service improvements in history. The ability to accelerate the movement of important business, legal, and government communications enabled decisions to be made faster and on a larger scale. The business innovation that the Tassis family introduced enriched their family, businesses, government, and most importantly, the working class who benefited so much from the rapid expansion of capital and trade. Even today, we can learn from the historical record that the ability to offer a novel new benefit pays off in many ways.