PARCEL POST IN FRANCE
The conveyance of parcels of merchandise, which had been undertaken by the early posts in France, was abandoned to private enterprise in 1795.[424] When, therefore, proposals were made for the establishment of an international parcel post service, France was without an internal service of the kind. She became, nevertheless, a party to the Convention of 1880, which established an international service,[425] availing herself of the privilege reserved to those countries without an inland parcel post service, of arranging for their obligations under the terms of the Convention to be assumed by railway and steamship companies. A contract was concluded with the administration of the State railways, the six great railway companies, and the shipping companies in receipt of subsidies for the conveyance of mails, under which those bodies undertook to conduct a service on behalf of the postal administration in accordance with the provisions of the Convention. They were to receive in its entirety the prescribed territorial transit rate of 50 centimes on every parcel, but not the surtax of 25 centimes.[426] The payment of 50 centimes per parcel was to be divided by the companies among themselves if the parcel was conveyed by more than one party, and constituted the full remuneration for the entire service performed, including the customs formalities. The contracting companies were required to print at their own cost a list of places served, and to keep the list available for reference by members of the public.
The establishment of an international service of this kind necessitated the provision of facilities for the transmission of
ordinary inland parcels within France.[427] The companies were accordingly required to undertake also the transportation of inland parcels upon their railways and the delivery of inland parcels in localities adjoining their lines under the same conditions and for the same remuneration as in the case of parcels in the international service. A difficulty existed in the fact that small parcel traffic (l'envois par messagerie) was subject to special taxation.[428] These taxes frequently exceeded the charge for transmission, and in some cases the value of the parcel itself. In order to encourage the use of the service, these taxes were reduced or modified by a series of laws at a sacrifice of revenue exceeding two and a half million francs a year. The service, which was established on the 1st May 1881, did not include the whole of France, but extended only to localities served by the State railways, the six contracting companies, and certain subsidiary companies which contracted for the business with the larger companies. The maximum limit of weight was fixed at 3 kilogrammes, and the rates of postage were 60 centimes for parcels transported from railway station to railway station, and 85 centimes for parcels delivered at the residence of the addressee. The service became immediately popular, the number of parcels posted during 1881 being at the rate of over half a million a month.
Soon after its establishment the service was extended to the smaller subsidiary lines, and to districts not served by railway. The latter extension, which it was not found easy to arrange, was provided for by introducing into the contracts for the conveyance of the ordinary mails in those districts a clause empowering the administration to require the contractor to convey post parcels for a remuneration of 15 centimes per
parcel—the amount to be increased to 25 centimes for parcels delivered at residence.
The Lisbon Congress (1885) raised the limit of weight in the international service from 3 kilogrammes to 5 kilogrammes, but a corresponding increase was not made in the internal French service until 1892. The maximum limit of weight was raised to 10 kilogrammes in 1897, and the following rates of postage are now in operation:—
| Weight. | Delivered at Railway Station. | Delivered at Residence or Poste Restante. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| fr. | fr. | ||
| Not exceeding 3 kg. | 0·60 | 0·85 | |
| 3-5kg. | 0·80 | 1·05 | |
| 5-10 kg. | 1·25 | 1·50 | [429] |
Cumbersome parcels are charged rates 50 per cent. greater than the ordinary rates.[430] Parcels redirected or returned to sender are subject to an additional rate of postage, and to a tax (droit de timbre) of 10 centimes.[431]
Parcels for despatch are accepted only at the railway stations or offices of the companies or by their agents. They are delivered at the stations of the companies or at their offices in towns or at the offices of their agents, to be called for, or they are delivered at residence; but the latter service is undertaken only when a delivery service organized by the companies, or their agents, for their own purposes already exists.