Today we're going to discuss the history of the postal service. Although many people believe that the first stamps were introduced in Britain in 1840, in fact, the very first adhesive stamp, called the Penny Black, was indeed British. However, the concept of prepaid postage dates back earlier. In 1653, a Frenchman named Jean-Jacques Renouard de Villayer set up a postal system in Paris where you paid for letters using a slip of paper. Unfortunately, his system didn't last long. It was only in the 19th century that stamps became widely used, largely due to the efforts of Sir Rowland Hill, who proposed a uniform penny rate for all letters within the UK.