1843 (September 8), the elusive "Empresa Indias" datestamp, in
blue, neatly-struck on piece of incoming letter to Havana, further
struck
1843 (September 8), the elusive "Empresa Indias" datestamp, in
blue, neatly-struck on piece of incoming letter to Havana, further
struck with a matching blue numeral 3 due marking, a choice example
of this difficult strike, from the final decade of the company's
operations, one of only a small number of examples of this postmark
recorded in blue. Established in 1827 by a group of Havana
merchants, the Empresa Mercantil de Correos Marítimos ("La
Empresa") was a private company authorized to modernize the mail
service between Spain, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. Operating a dedicated
fleet of numbered vessels, the company held a semi-monopoly on
maritime mail and taxed incoming foreign letters, until it was
outcompeted by British steamships and closed in 1851.
