In 1490, Maximilian I commissioned the Thurn und Taxis family to establish a relay postal service that linked major cities such as Brussels, Innsbruck, and Castile. This initiative marked the founding of the Thurn und Taxis Imperial Postal System, which became the first regular public courier network in Western Europe. The system significantly improved communication and commerce across the continent, setting a precedent for modern postal services.

The postal system transformed literary culture: letters became a viable literary form, epistolary poetry flourished, and writers from Erasmus to later Enlightenment figures depended on this infrastructure to distribute manuscripts and maintain intellectual networks.