Jardine in HK
Jardine’s Lookout is named after William Jardine, founder of Jardine Matheson. It was from here, in the days of the sailing ships, that a watch was kept for the first glimpse of the sails of the firm’s clippers coming from India and London. As soon as a vessel was signaled, a fast whaleboat was sent out to collect Jardines’ mails. The correspondence was rushed back to the office so that the directors could have the first possible information on the world’s markets. (This practice saved the company on at least one occasion, in 1866, when it learned of the collapse of the discount house Overend, Gurney and Company about one hour before others did, and quickly withdrew its balances at a local bank before anyone else had heard of the news.) Wiki source
Mongol Yams
Genghis Khan’s postal system, with postal stations 15-40 miles apart. By the end of Kublai Khan’s rule there were more than 1,400 postal stations in China alone. History of info source
Rothschilds
Even used pigeons, although the Waterloo story is apocryphal Rothschild archive source