The paper is devoted to the collisions on the issue of postal regalia in Russia during the period of Great reforms. To be precise, it concerns the problem of this sector of the state monopoly being loss-making and the measures which were taken to solve it in accordance to the improvement of financial situation in the country. The paper discusses in detail the steps to increase profitability of the post and decrease its expenses, such as discussions on the matter of free shipping of the official correspondence, efforts to reduce governmental financing of postal stations and reconsideration of the mechanism of postal financial accounting. It also analyses the way the existed situation influenced welfare pf the postal employees. The paper puts forward the hypothesis about unprofitability of post being “imaginary” at a certain stage. Special attention is payed to identifying the reasons for little success of all the measures taken during that period.