THE SCENE: Marvel at this tale of an unmounted postal service that existed during the days of Kublai Khan, which seems as inefficient as it does incredible.
THE TEXT: Now let me tell you another thing which I forgot to mention – one that is very germane to the matter in hand. The fact is that between one post and the next, at distances of three miles apart, there are stations which may contain as many as forty buildings occupied by unmounted couriers, who also play a part in the Great Khan’s postal service. I will tell you how. They wear large belts, set all round with bells, so that when they run they are audible at a great distance. They always run at full speed and never for more than three miles. And at the next station three miles away, where the noise they make give due notice of their approach, another courier is waiting in readiness. As soon as the first man arrives, the new one takes what he is carrying and starts to run. After he has run for three miles, the performance is repeated. And I can assure you that by means of this service of unmounted couriers, the Great Khan receives news over a ten day’s journey in a day and a night. For it takes these runners no more than a day and a night to cover a ten day’s journey, or two days and two nights for a twenty days’ journey. So in ten days they can transmit news over a journey of a hundred days. And in the fruit season it often happens that by this means fruit gathered in the morning in the city of Khan-balik is delivered on the evening of the next day to the Great Khan in the city of Shang-tu, then day’s journey away.
– Marco Polo, The Travels, 14th Century AD
