| Résumé: | In the Pastons’ England carriers who plied a regular route provided an important service, carrying part loads of goods, even valuables, as well as letters and money. Such services have not always been recognized, and there has been a diversity of supposition as to when carriers as distinct from carters began to trade. This paper seeks to use Oxford college accounts to frame a period during which regular carrying services began. Before 1420 colleges used to pay a fellow's expenses to go and bring books bequeathed to the college, but by 1450 carriage was usually provided more cheaply be regular carriers serving the city and university. Lack of detail in the evidence makes it difficult to arrive at secure dates, but there was a named carrier plying between Oxford and London by 1449. From 1459 the trade was deemed to be carried on for the benefit and under the jurisdiction of the university, and before the end of the fifteenth century the university licensed certain carriers. Carriers are attested earlier in Oxford than anywhere else. The evidence does not admit of economic analysis, but carriers provided an important service to society, not least in enabling correspondence such as that of the Paston family.
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