n those
cases (Constance, Darmstadt, and Karlsruhe) a rate of 3 pf.--the
equivalent of the previously existing rate--was established. In Berlin,
in view of the specially expensive arrangements for the delivery of
letters, the rate of 10 pf. for local letters remained in force.[561]

For the delivery of local parcels no charge had previously been made
beyond the rate of local postage, although in respect of all packets
from outside a delivery charge was collected. From the 1st January 1875,
however, local parcels were made liable to a delivery charge.[562] In
general, the local rates introduced on the 1st January 1875 remained for
more than a quarter of a century unchanged, but in course of time
difficulties in their administration developed. The order of the 18th
December 1874 had prescribed a special local rate for letters only; for
all other kinds of postal traffic the ordinary rates remained
applicable. Consequently, a local postcard was charged the same postage
as a letter weighing 250 grammes; similarly the rates for printed matter
or samples for local delivery were high when compared with the rate for
local letters. Such rates were, moreover, anomalous when compared with
the rates for long-distance traffic, which, for postcards, printed
matter, and samples, were much less than for letters. In fact, for local
delivery printed matter and samples had only to be placed in sealed
covers in order to pass at the rate of 5 pf.

In many of the larger towns the delivery of local letters was undertaken
by private enterprise at rates much lower than those of the Imperial
Post Office. The undertakings secured a very large proportion of the
local traffic, and found even these low rates very profitable.
Moreover, the large increase in the number of post offices, and the
withdrawal of numerous places from the areas assigned to certain
offices, had led, in many cases, to great difficulties in deciding
whether letters were subject to the general or the local rate of
postage.[563]

The regulations governing local traffic were accordingly revised under
the law of the 20th December 1899. Local rates were considerably reduced
in amount, and were made applicable to all traffic passing between a
town area and the neighbouring area (_Nachbarorts-Verkehr_),[564] by
which the advantage of these rates was greatly extended. In order to
enable the Post Office adequately to fulfil its public functions, as the
phrase went, it was thought nece