France to Spain - 1868

Today's cover has some similarities to the item I highlighted in my last France to Spain post.  In this case, the letter was mailed as a double rate letter from Marseille, France to Madrid, Spain.  Unfortunately for the recipient, the letter was found to be underpaid and they were required to pay 30 cuartos to receive this piece of mail.

 

Really - We Tried to Pay the Postage!

This letter is very similar to the one highlighted in the prior post - for more clarification, you can go there.  

The Bordeaux post office apparently served as the exchange office for this item, though the markings on the reverse make it hard to be certain.  Once again, the red box with "Affranchissement Insuffisant" was applied to indicate that the postage was insufficient to pay for the letter to get to the destination without further payment.  The bold, red "30" indicated that 30 cuartos were due at delivery.

Once again, the process for short paid mail between France and Spain at the time was to determine the postage by using the higher UNPAID mail rate.  Once that amount is calculated, credit is given for the amount of postage paid.

The weight of this item was greater than 8 adarmes (roughly 14 grams).  Once again, it is possible that the problem comes in part from the difference between France running rates at every 7.5 grams and Spain at every 7 grams.  However, there is no way to prove that supposition with what is on this folded letter wrapper.

Once again, unpaid mail from France to Spain is charged 18 cuartos for every 4 adarmes in weight.

Triple rate due = 54 cuartos
Less amount paid = 24 cuartos   (80 centimes in France)
Total due = 30 cuartos

Getting from Here to There

Readable markings on this cover:

Marseille Jun 22, 1868
Cette A Bordeaux Jun 23 (verso)
Bordeaux Jun 23 (verso)

There were actually two land access points between France and Spain over which mail (other than border mail) could travel.  One in the east at Le Perthus/La Junquera and the other at Irun/St Jean de Luz.  The rail crossing at Irun progressed much more quickly, so even though this letter originated in southeastern France (Marseille), it was actually more efficient given rail schedules and the eventual Madrid destination to use French rail services to get to the western border crossing.  

In viewing the map below, Marseille would be located just off the far right edge of the map.

 

A Word or Two About the Correspondents

Leon A Laffitte pops up as giving testimony regarding the status of an early art collection in 1863, presumably as part of his profession as a banker.  The profession, is, at present a guess, given other references to a Laffitte (or Lafitte) family in Madrid involved in banking.  A Guide to Sources of Information on Foreign Investment in Spain by Teresa Tortella (2000) includes all types of information that could be useful for tracking business people down in Spain.  The following was taken from that resource.

 

The origination of this letter is also a company that can be seen as a watermark style printing on the paper and a black company marking on the front of the cover.  As near as I can tell, the watermark reads V Bouzigues Ely Fils Aine & Cie.

Open Questions:

1. I suspect I won't find many higher rate items that remain in my price range for this sort of material, but I do wonder what some of the higher short paid rates might be for the 1860s from France to Spain.