The Pacific Mail Steamship Company agreed to provide every month three first-class steamers to sail from the port of New York for the Isthmus of Panama, with connecting steamers on the Pacific Ocean for the port of San Francisco. The company undertook to supply space in these steamers for an amount of freight not exceeding 14,700 tons annually. The steamship company accorded to the railroad company the exclusive right to fix the rates on freight of every description, moving from New York to San Francisco during the period of the agreement, provided that the rates should not exceed the rates then in force, nor in any event $160 first-class, $140 second-class, $90 third-class, and $60 fourth-class and special. Out of the gross receipts on the freight westbound the steamship company was first to draw $735,000, or at the rate of $50 per ton on 14,700 tons. If the amount of the freight handled should not equal 14,700 tons, or if that quantity of freight should be handled but the receipts therefrom should not amount to $50 per ton, the railroad agreed to make up the difference, so that the receipts on the first 14,700 tons should always amount to $735,000. If, on the other hand, the steamship should collect thereon an average rate exceeding $50, the railroad was to be entitled to the surplus. In the event that through westbound freight exceeded in volume 14,700 tons, the gross earnings on the excess quantity were to be divided between steamship company and railroad company as follows: first, $30 per ton was to be taken by the steamship company; additional receipts up to $50 a ton were to be divided equally between steamship and railroad; and earnings over $50 were to go to the railroad.[352] The essential facts in this agreement were that the steamship company surrendered the power of fixing the westbound rates in return for a guarantee of $735,000 a year. Later Contracts