There have not been many private companies through the years that have had a huge and important impact on the expansion of communication, neither in a specific country nor a region or worldwide.

The second half of the nineteenth century saw the most important expansion of postal communication ever, not only in the major financial areas of Europe and North America, but also in and between most other areas on the globe. One of the key factors in this expansion was the founding of many new steamship companies, both private enterprises and those operated by different governments.

These shipping companies and their shipping lines were such an important factor for the governments involved that many of them had governmental charters or contracts, or in other ways were subsidised by the governments.