Rowland Hill calculated that a lower, flatter rate of postage would not only make the public better off and better read, but increase the Revenue.
On May 1st, 1840, the Post Office introduced a new flat rate on letter postage, after years of high and complicated pricing. The idea for the Uniform Penny Post came to Rowland Hill, a former schoolmaster, from talking to his father about free-market economics. Both had noticed how the national tax revenue had jumped just when the Government had cut taxes and regulations on foreign trade.