Explaining to a 9 year old girl why Air Mail paper is so thin and why the postage is so much more(almost US$1 per ounce), I was reminded that the mail has always been the driver of new transportation technologies. From stage coaches and ships to trains to airplanes, the mail coach/train/plane was always the first service to some distant place. The telegraph, telephone, and fax emerged in parallel, and the internet is the ultimate manifestation of intangible communication. I wonder if there is a good history transportation/communications technology and markets?
The underlying reality is that the needs of commerce to move information — orders, bills, plans, proposals, contracts — and the competitive advantage of getting there first has driven the adoption of all these marvels. We think the telephone was invented so we could make birthday calls, but it was really about making deals.