When the American Express Company was founded in 1850 it was an “express business”. This meant that it was a private company whose business was to carry money, packages or valuable things from one place to another. The US Postal Service had only recently begun. They delivered letters, but not large parcels. This is why some people started small “express businesses”. An express messenger would carry money in a money bag. He would travel by train or stagecoach. The trains were very slow and often came off the rails. The stagecoaches travelled on terrible roads which were much too bumpy for the horses to trot. It was a time when many people were going to California and other areas in the west of the US. There was a lot of demand for money to be transferred from one part of the country to another. This is why the American Express company was started.