摘要：The reorganization of the United States Post Office Department in
1836 changed postal topography, and included a design for the
local accumulation of the mail as well as for the dispatch of the
principal mails among the hubs. From Congressional
documentation, I have compiled the "New York State Postal Route
Gazetteer" and an index by post office of all mail service among
1500 offices in New York State in 1837. The design of a local
postal network emerges in every detail (including a “power law”
relation between local revenues and the frequency of the mails). A
principle for the self-organization of intensive postal development
also emerges to complement the overall design of the system.
Over time, transportation miles, not mail frequency, dominated
the scale-free behavior of the system as a whole. The interaction
of these incommensurate networks was understood to constitute a
zone of perfect freedom for the entrepreneur.
