The 2-cent rate proved to be too high. Much dissatisfaction resulted, and evasions were constant. In defiance of the
law, which conferred on the Postmaster-General the monopoly of the carriage of letters, merchants made arrangements for the transmission and delivery by their private messengers of their letters for local delivery. The evil assumed such proportions that the suppression of the private carriage of local letters was deemed out of question, and the Government concluded that the only satisfactory solution of the difficulty was the re-introduction of the general 1 cent drop-letter rate.[552] So great was the number of drop letters sent otherwise than through the Post Office that no actual loss of revenue was anticipated from a reduction of the rate, which should bring back those letters to the post. This anticipation was more than realized. In a very short time after the passing of the Act of 1898 legalizing the reduction to 1 cent, the gross revenue from local letters surpassed that obtained under the 2-cent rate.
France
In 1658 a local service (la petite poste) was established in Paris by M. Velayer. He obtained from the King the exclusive privilege of erecting letter-boxes, which were opened three times daily, in various parts of the city,[553] and set up an office in the royal palace at which tickets bearing the words "Port-payé le ... du ... de l'an 1653" might be purchased at the price of a sou. No money was paid to the letter-carrier by persons posting or receiving letters. A label was affixed to the letter, which was then delivered without further charge.[554] The service was not a success and was discontinued.
In 1759 a local postal service was re-established in Paris by M. de Chamousset. The new service was avowedly in imitation of the London penny post. The rate was 2 sous for a letter not exceeding 1 ounce in weight, delivered in Paris, and 3 sous if delivered in surrounding villages not served by the general post. This venture proved more successful than the earlier service of M. Velayer. At the outset it employed about two hundred men, and the profits for the first year were 50,000 livres. But its founder, M. de Chamousset, met with no better fate than Dockwra, the founder of its prototype. Such large profits could not escape the notice of the Government, and the service was taken over by the King, Chamousset being given a pension of 20,000 livres as its inventor.[555] The service was continued, and its success led to the establishment of similar local services in other towns—Bordeaux, Lille, Lyons, Nancy, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nantes, Rouen, Strasburg, etc.[556]
The ordinary letter rate in France remained at a moderately high level until a comparatively late date, and a special rate for local letters continued until 1878. In that year the ordinary rate for letters was reduced to 15 centimes, the level of the existing local rate, and since that time local letters have enjoyed no special privilege in France.
Germany
In Germany the delivery of local letters in towns was for a long period conducted as a private undertaking of the postmaster or letter-carrier. Between 1842 and 1852 it was made
a branch of the general postal service, and the delivery charge (Ortsbestellgeld), which, in general, had been retained by the letter-carrier as wages, was, in the latter year, made payable to the general revenue. An arrangement was also made for the acceptance and delivery of local letters, at the rate of 1 sgr.[557] If the letters were called for at the post office (and the service of delivery at the house therefore not performed) the rate was reduced to ½ sgr.; and when one person posted as many as one hundred local letters at the same time, the rate for each letter was no more than 4½ pf. (reduced in 1860 to 4 pf.), including delivery at residence. When as many as fifty were posted at one time, the rate was reduced to ½ sgr. By a regulation of the 21st December 1860 the limit of weight for the single letter was, however, raised to ½ pound, and a rate of 2 sgr. imposed on heavier letters, but the rates were not otherwise materially changed. The law of 16th September 1862 abolished the delivery fee on ordinary letters. In 1865[558] the rate for local packets of printed matter was reduced to 4 pf.