Postal Statistics

Here the statistics of postal sendings for the time period April 1, 1923 to March 31, 1924 (a budget year) and for the budget year of 1930 are available. The data are from the Statistical Yearbook 1923 and from the analogous volume for 1930. I hope the data bring some insight in the international contacts of that time and to some extent characterize the previous migration processes. I think that the data about the money transfer by mail could be of some interest for understanding the relationships between the local people in Latvia and their relatives in other countries.

The actual table of the Yearbook also contained information about other countries, for example, it contained a line - other countries of Africa, and also other types of sendings were covered.

Danzig was a free city mainly inhabited by Germans at that time. It remained a free city until the beginning of the WW2, and now is included in Poland and called Gdansk

I grouped the countries in the tables by the number of letters they sent to Latvia in 1923.

Letters
Postcards
Packages without declared value in Lats
Total value of packages of declared value in Lats
The total value of letters of declared value (money letters) in Lats
Money Transfer in Lats

Letters

Country	Received in Latvia		Sent from Latvia
Country	1923	1930	1923	1930
Germany	1 382 441	1 916 770	1 036 999	1 838 200
Russia, USSR	617 740	791 180	724 377	742 230
USA	258 012	308 490	380 254	412 840
Great Britain	249 054	380 960	247 815	381 550
Lithuania	223 746	387 720	227 542	451 180
Estonia	219 305	328 710	222 667	391 790
Poland	170 225	282 260	192 489	352 290
France	125 064	209 960	89 458	198 650
Denmark	88 637	101 810	61 444	78 790
Danzig	68 113	69 520	39 005	62 660
Sweden	52 930	68 720	50 792	76 320
Belgium	51 279	113 590	36 702	93 440
Finland	43 274	93 450	45 356	90 580
Austria	41 099	85 730	36 364	87 610
Czechoslovakia	40 255	102 510	42 814	105 780
Switzerland	35 193	79 990	36 275	74 870
Netherlands	34 886	85 620	40 368	84 290
Norway	32 289	23 090	16 610	35 060
South Africa	29 592	95 230	44 116	111 610
Italy	23 676	43 750	22 870	49 740
Yugoslavia	14 811	11 420	11 890	22 100
Palestine	13 252	21 600	14 404	26 070
Russia, Asiatic	11 716	7 170	5 458	4 710
Brazil	10 592	15 890	13 585	18 770
Rumania	10 574	13 650	11 100	23 570
China	9 796	13 080	6 958	16 150
Canada	9 189	18 190	16 187	43 370
Bulgaria	6 757	5 150	4 731	16 880
Turkey	4 201	2 400	4 160	5 650
Hungary	3 931	9 100	5 344	14 400
Egypt	3 011	1 880	1 838	4 790
Australia	2 735	9 560	3 094	11 840
Spain	2 621	4 429	1 794	5 140
Greece	2 562	1 620	1 356	6 910
Mexico	2 432	310	2 061	1 430
Japan	2 179	2 220	1 301	15 600
Argentina	2 172	4 420	3 530	12 010
India	2 024	740	646	3 810
Ireland	1 318	2 160	2 737	17 890
Portugal	962	1 440	860	4 070
Persia	533	360	430	3 110
Total:	3 913 238	5 727 300	3 722 658	6 041 300

No doubt, the table reflects the intensity of international contacts of that time and to some extent characterizes the relative importance of various countries in the migration processes. Quite clear that many families had their relatives in Soviet Russia that later became the USSR. In the USA there were much less relatives, but the intensity of the letter exchange was very great, because, I think, the people tried to reestablish family contacts destroyed by both the war and the refugee migrations. Similarly, one can propose that Brazil had so high position in the table because of emigration of Baptists to this country in 1922; that not all the refugees have come home from China yet, that the mail exchange with South Africa and Palestine was maintained by Jewish émigrés to these countries and so on. It is not clear who sent more letters from Yugoslavia than from Palestine and why the Great Britain had so high position on the list because no serious migration took place from or to these both countries. The only explanation could be the exchange of letters between sailors and their families. The explanation fits rather well for the Great Britain but is not very good for Yugoslavia.

For some countries there is a big difference between numbers of incoming and outgoing letters which is not explained also.

Postcards

Country	Received in Latvia		Sent from Latvia
Country	1923	1930	1923	1930
Germany	542 273	663 500	325 965	775 640
Russia	97 258	207 980	172 442	276 370
USA	46 691	37 800	78 926	88 380
Great Britain	44 587	45 990	33 698	146 960
Lithuania	62 798	124 400	85 953	210 750
Estonia	71 108	117 430	90 829	148 940
Poland	49 628	85 580	50 543	149 810
France	32 853	54 660	27 134	96 940
Denmark	14 073	22 000	17 146	22 320
Danzig	22 045	21 260	11 719	19 870
Sweden	18 615	15 090	13 762	18 790
Belgium	15 418	24 780	7 546	26 100
Finland	13 536	28 280	18 718	23 570
Austria	15 782	31 740	12 856	27 350
Czechoslovakia	14 535	32 670	11 719	37 080
Switzerland	13 902	31 130	10 396	20 440
Netherlands	7 876	14 720	11 367	17 600
Norway	4 177	5 330	4 199	8 430
South Africa	4 362	12 210	8 090	19 500
Italy	12 447	22 970	11 194	19 160
Yugoslavia	4 829	5 270	3 745	8 000
Palestine	2 711	4 940	3 565	7 080
Russia, Asiatic	7 768	1 100	1 511	1 450
Brazil	1 564	3 360	3 701	4 820
Rumania	11 640	4 500	3 809	6 370
China	1 883	2 050	1 303	13 140
Canada	1 181	2 900	3 982	6 070
Bulgaria	1 346	2 120	1 293	3 590
Turkey	1 195	490	1 176	2 280
Hungary	1 298	3 840	2 244	3 090
Egypt	1 034	140	651	1 260
Australia	767	2 480	724	3 130
Spain	1 082	3 030	796	1 970
Greece	1 023	1 610	434	2 090
Mexico	708	170	868	450
Japan	604	420	651	4 080
Argentina	590	2 290	796	2 470
India	1 180	660	289	1 530
Ireland	177	1 420	579	2 690
Portugal	413	1 260	217	1 800
Persia	177	70	-	620
Total:	1 151 172	1 646 500	1 042 937	2 243 500

The table shows that people preferred to exchange letters in the correspondence with some countries and postcards with others. For example, it is clear in the case of the United States.

Packages without declared value

Country	Received in Latvia		Sent from Latvia
Country	1923	1930	1923	1930
Germany	79 648	120 265	11 458	17 262
Russia	953	2 354	1 631	24 059
USA	1 395	3 887	581	1 969
Great Britain	4 328	7 710	110	1 613
Lithuania	463	1 738	1 029	5 981
Estonia	496	1 979	1 351	4 374
Poland	1 076	4 770	299	1 605
France	3 571	9 773	175	1 755
Denmark	684	2 544	86	308
Danzig	121	528	151	173
Sweden	758	2 255	159	672
Belgium	407	2 042	56	537
Finland	199	453	145	548
Austria	763	4 499	110	496
Czechoslovakia	1 939	4 585	170	910
Switzerland	2 052	4 941	105	744
Netherlands	1 041	2 892	57	245
Norway	116	1 262	299	288
South Africa	56	70	55	178
Italy	320	1 466	47	301
Yugoslavia	219	1 415	48	90
Palestine	59	262	31	182
Russia, Asiatic	17	144	38	83
Brazil	12	61	7	61
Rumania	9	83	19	125
China	12	85	21	155
Canada	31	104	16	79
Bulgaria	11	79	10	46
Turkey	2	64	3	7
Hungary	73	822	11	70
Egypt	1	71	-	26
Australia	8	35	11	22
Spain	6	65	5	42
Greece	4	136	1	13
Mexico	-	30	-	6
Japan	6	85	1	70
Argentina	4	23	2	50
India	1	20	-	31
Ireland	-	-	-	2
Portugal	11	30	-	4
Persia	-	21	-	2
Total:	100 877	184 597	18 567	65 286

In 1923 Latvia received five times more packages than they were sent from, but in 1930 only three times more. I do not know what was sent in these packages.

Next three tables were included in the Page to study the financial flows across the borders by postal sendings.

Total value of packages of declared value in Lats

Country	Received in Latvia		Sent from Latvia
Country	1923	1930	1923	1930
Germany	4 012 026	3 914 477	358 628	259 594
Russia	51 994	78 085	186 599	78 082
USA	5	-	-	16
Great Britain	178 466	169 761	77 625	13 594
Lithuania	1 227	115 059	14 012	44 665
Estonia	88 555	91 801	17 667	20 103
Poland	288 519	277 109	5 864	19 370
France	478 280	421 850	49 330	20 136
Denmark	25 965	76 335	19 292	2 035
Danzig	4 467	25 499	2 732	780
Sweden	9 632	65 093	24 027	17 855
Belgium	1 345	114 902	3 603	14 143
Finland	705	16 463	670	12 355
Austria	40 951	117 606	20 838	10 223
Czechoslovakia	118 842	159 402	1 258	37 607
Switzerland	178 235	596 257	22 868	27 377
Netherlands	136 621	185 850	12 068	5 498
Norway	480	26 027	381	724
South Africa	35	-	20	21
Italy	242	36 848	4 865	2 537
Yugoslavia	275	55 135	2 482	1 352
Palestine	-	-	1 214	1 964
Russia, Asiatic	890	-	2 650	252
Brazil	-	-	-	314
Rumania	-	1 523	135	2 613
China	-	1	10	2 138
Canada	-	2	-	-
Bulgaria	-	-	-	1 164
Turkey	-	-	-	656
Hungary	3 078	29 582	264	2 389
Egypt	-	-	1 500	-
Australia	-	2	60	427
Spain	-	-	-	-
Greece	-	2 116	-	112
Mexico	-	-	-	-
Japan	-	1157	20	29
Argentina	-	1	-	966
India	-	-	-	31
Ireland	-	-	-	-
Portugal	-	-	-	4
Persia	-	-	-	179
Total:	5 620 835	6 599 620	830 890	601 721

The table shows that in 1923 rather serious support was received from foreign countries by packages of declared value. I think in these packages various goods were sent.

People from Germany in 1923 sent so many packages with declared value and so little money (see next two tables), because very great inflation took place at that time in Germany, and obviously the money lost its value while coming from Germany to Latvia.

Evidently it was rather expensive to sent a package from United States and this was the reason why people in the USA practically did not send them but preferred to transfer money.

The total value of letters with declared value (money letters) in Lats

Country	Received in Latvia		Sent from Latvia
Country	1923	1930	1923	1930
Germany	211 016	1 465 186	3 622 838	611 660
Russia	-	9 166	-	2 189 124
USA	76	14 710	-	70
Great Britain	19 540	76 214	282 439	81 598
Lithuania	335 258	632 049	1 005 302	540 109
Estonia	122 338	73 022	187 753	143 131
Poland	43 836	1 017 331	579 422	674 735
France	191 562	110 019	192 526	316 097
Denmark	95 670	35 373	63 299	218 853
Danzig	120 372	322 819	124 313	32 257
Sweden	97 247	198 354	329 993	279 808
Belgium	15 693	34 481	33 569	85 270
Finland	42 154	58 043	57 571	117 690
Austria	22 993	198 047	103 346	54 050
Czechoslovakia	3 448	26 733	30 120	68 447
Switzerland	78 555	139 489	71 845	106 104
Netherlands	206 139	172 841	80 170	19 251
Norway	28 262	39 498	23 447	2 669
South Africa	5	-	100	-
Italy	10 852	12 337	71 565	60 016
Yugoslavia	-	11 244	436	7 612
Palestine	66	183	1 551	17 560
Russia, Asiatic	-	385	-	10 291
Brazil	104	5 136	7 801	6 136
Rumania	1 358	1 385	5 772	8 292
China	59	82 586	626	1 702
Canada	-	-	-	-
Bulgaria	479	6 083	649	2 195
Turkey	3 817	-	8 003	1 897
Hungary	-	2 311	5 169	2 812
Egypt	-	-	245	685
Australia	-	-	-	-
Spain	19 135	1 538	380	271
Greece	-	-	-	1 602
Mexico	-	-	-	-
Japan	-	-	255	52
Argentina	-	8 489	828	2 738
India	-	142	317	15
Ireland	-	-	-	-
Portugal	-	-	-	-
Persia	-	221	-	-
Total:	1 570 984	4 762 908	6 897 393	5 669 106

What the money letters were, I do not know exactly. I think that they were the letters with banknotes in them, and the post officers were informed about the content. May be this kind of money transfer was cheaper. In any case, this was a way how money could cross the borders.

It is seen that this kind of financial support of relatives was very important in 1923 when a lot of money was transferred to Germany and Lithuania. In 1930 the first place was for the USSR. As the next table demonstrates, it was not possible to sent money to the USSR in other way. The number of this kind of letters to the USSR was 20 368 i.e. a letter carried on average about 100 Lats.

Money transfer (Lats)

Country	Received in Latvia		Sent from Latvia
Country	1923	1930	1923	1930
Germany	3 617	995 135	10 404	2 425 151
Russia	20	-	-	-
USA	541 495	1 697 204	2 810	28 058
Great Britain	14 269	117 421	3 524	32 637
Lithuania	-	831 894	-	336 545
Estonia	70 200	179 363	10 684	229 524
Poland	-	10 759	28	59 225
France	3 211	79 493	3 232	171 154
Denmark	1 454	35 373	2 915	15 668
Danzig	237	36 247	10	18 128
Sweden	1 968	24 069	998	26 291
Belgium	903	29 016	158	26 211
Finland	22	59 404	149	9 648
Austria	-	7 981	-	70 162
Czechoslovakia	171	14 790	462	81 368
Switzerland	-	11 998	6	31 226
Netherlands	2 293	14 542	-	13 551
Norway	-	4 025	-	4 855
South Africa	5	98	705	3 089
Italy	-	7 794	137	14 982
Yugoslavia	-	97	-	32
Palestine	-	111	10	400
Russia, Asiatic	-		-	-
Brazil	-	-	-	-
Rumania	-	59	-	-
China	-	116	-	801
Canada	-	121	250	771
Bulgaria	-		-	-
Turkey	-	-	-	-
Hungary	-	1 575	-	2 719
Egypt	-	-	-	-
Australia	-	705	-	-
Spain	-		-	-
Greece	-	-	-	-
Mexico	-	-	-	-
Japan	-	116	-	-
Argentina	-	57	-	6
India	-	86	-	-
Ireland	-	-	-	-
Portugal	-	-	-	-
Persia	-	-	-	-
Total:	639 860	4 143 518	36 482	3 602 298

I think that mainly the former émigrés from the Baltic provinces to the USA sent so much money to Latvia in 1923. There were totally 5134 sendings with total sum 541 495 Lats i.e. an average sending transferred more than 100 Ls. Also in 1930 rather much money came from the USA and Lithuania.