Today in Labour History

By the later fourteenth century, the Italian and other European trading nations had their own mail services conveying news swiftly to and from the Levant in a type of small, fast ship called a grippo. By the early sixteenth century many cities in the Low Countries were included in a network of regular postal services which increasingly reached foreign cities as well. Merchant letters from Antwerp show couriers of the ordinary post departing to Italy approximately every three weeks. Letters to Antwerp from Genoa sent overland took 12-15 days, from Rome and Venice 14-16 days. The letter of Columbus to Luis de Santángel announcing his discovery (15 February 1493) swiftly spread the news  throughout Europe.

Sheilagh Ogilvie, Institutions and European Trade. Merchant Guilds, 1000-1800 (2011) 375-376