The 16th century businessman who created the taxi concept

The 16th century was a time of astonishing transformations in Europe. The Middle Ages were gone, the Black Death had run its course, and the fears and superstitions of the Middle Ages were slowly disappearing. The printing press had been invented and it was completely revamping the way people communicated. Columbus had discovered America and the great age of exploration was in full swing. Medical advances, the Reformation, the creation of the great Italian banking houses, and Dutch business enterprises had completely changed the way people thought, worked, and worshiped.

And yet there was one area in which there had been virtually no advancement since the time of Christ: transportation. Horse or mule, horse-drawn carts, and boats were the travel methods used to transport people, goods, and food. The journey was slow. It was uncomfortable. And often it was very dangerous. Bandits and pirates faced little in the way of organized surveillance. One bandit practically had a picnic during that period.

Of all the difficulties a traveler faced, the most frustrating by far was speed – or the lack of it. As the great Florentine, Venetian and Genoese merchant banks financed war, fleets, crops, expeditions, and colonization, they had to continually factor a risk premium into their risk / reward calculations before deciding on the interest to be charged. for each loan. The slowness of receiving progress, success or failure news on the status of an investment vehicle was distressing for all parties involved in a venture. Did the fleet sink or is it close to home with valuable cargo? Has the battle been fought and who won? Was a new land discovered and what was it offering in minerals or commercial goods as materials for profit?

Knowledge is power and speed provides the advantage that makes this power so important. If today I know what my enemy or rival will not know for several days, I have a decided advantage in strategizing for my benefit and benefit. In the 16th century, a hard-working Belgian family developed the first international service to tackle the age-old problem of slow communication.

The Tassis family had obtained the rights to run a rudimentary postal service in various duchies in what is now Belgium. The service promised a dignified life for the Tassis family by the standards of the time. However, they wanted to do more, expand and create a service that could become the international standard.

The Tassis family divided work responsibilities among family members and dispersed them across Europe. The key to its success was a cohesive and standardized system of horse fleets, responsible and experienced riders, a network of terminals to change horse, rider and redirect mail and packages, and scheduled delivery times. Spain, France, Italy, and Germany were little more than a polyglot of feudal city-states during this time. There was no central government to handle a service like mail delivery that we now consider routine. The opportunity for a private company to organize and manage an international operation of this import and scale was wonderful.

The Tassis received contracts to handle mail delivery throughout most of continental Europe. From Naples to the Danube, and from Gibraltar to Copenhagen, the family built a delivery network that managers at DHL, UPS or FedEx would admire and recognize today. A treaty, legal contract or purchase order that took five weeks to reach Genoa from Madrid could now be delivered in seven to ten days. As charges increased, the price dropped and this only sped up the use of the service.

The family became rich, powerful and throughout Europe became members of the aristocracy. The name Tassis in the German language is spelled “taxis”.

Today, all over the world, people call for a taxi when they need to get around for a fee. The taxi service created by the Tassis was an important part of the development of the Renaissance.

The Tassis are responsible for one of the most basic and important service upgrades in history. The ability to accelerate the movement of important business, legal and government communications allowed decisions to be made faster and on a larger scale. The entrepreneurial innovation introduced by the Tassis family enriched their family, businesses, government and, most importantly, the working class who benefited so much from the rapid expansion of capital and commerce. Even today, we can still learn from the historical record that the ability to offer a novel new benefit pays off in many ways.