After much negotiation the sum to be paid was finally decided. It amounted to some six million marks. In order to get rid of the private establishments for the handling of private letters, etc., the Imperial Administration therefore paid in all (i.e. including the compensation to the employees of the private undertakings) a sum of about 7½ million marks.[569]

The new rates were as follow[570]:—

(a) Letters—
   Not exceeding250grammes in weight5 pf.
(b) Postcards2 pf.
(c) Printed matter—
   Not exceeding50grammes2 pf.
   50grammes to100"3 pf.
   100"250"5 pf.
   250"500"10 pf.
   500"1,000"15 pf.
(d) Commercial papers—
   Not exceeding250grammes5 pf.
   250grammes to500"10 pf.
   500"1,000"15 pf.
(e) Samples—
   Not exceeding250grammes5 pf.
   250grammes to350"10 pf.
(f) Mixed packages of (c), (d), and (e)—
   Not exceeding250grammes5 pf.
   250grammes to500"10 pf.
   500"1,000"15 pf.

These rates applied throughout the Imperial postal territory, including Berlin, which thus for the first time obtained the advantage of local rates; and in 1902 they were extended to all places which had a post office for only part of the year, such as small watering-places, summer resorts, and beauty spots.[571]

The result of the reduced rates was not satisfactory financially. It was not, of course, possible to calculate with any exactness the actual cost of the service performed by the Post Office in respect of local traffic; but such estimates as the administration were able to make tended to show that the cost exceeded the revenue, and that the local business was therefore conducted at some loss.[572] Consequently, when in 1906 Imperial requirements made it necessary to obtain an increased revenue from the Post Office, the administration placed the burden on the local traffic, although not without some opposition in the Reichstag. On the 1st July 1906 the rates for local traffic, with the exception of the

rate for local letters, were made the same as the general rates for transmission throughout the Imperial postal territory.

The rate for letters remained as formerly, 5 pf. for letters not exceeding 250 grammes in weight.[573]