How Is International Postage Monies Handled?

I'm a retired business analyst and confess that that the money part of businesses is on my mind wayyyyy too much.

My question is based on the sharing (?) of postage monies between countries for international mail. In example, if I buy $5 of USA postage and apply to a parcel going to Germany, how is the money split (or is it)?

I "assume" the parcel will travel via USA postage medium to an airport where it will be placed on a USA airplane which will fly to Europe. At that European airport, it will eventually find its way to Germany, and the German postal services will deliver it to the door of the addressee.

Financially speaking, how does all this work?

Each country operates on a "you do mine, I do yours" basis.

This article (although dated)..may provide more info:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns...r-the-stamps

Graphis,
Thanks for the article, it makes sense and even I can understand it.

In summary, at the onset of international mail the systems were complex and labor intensive to track the processes. Then, an international meeting resulted in treaties that basically said each country keep the postage it collects. The theory was that each letter dictated a response, which would mean "equal" monies for each country.

Of course that system eventually got taken advantage of, resulting in a myriad of problems. One solution that seemed to work was to net the weight of mail "to/from" a country and the country with the most weight pay the other country for the shipping of the differential.

Whew, nothing is ever easy............

Thank you!