On the 15th August 1913 the limit of weight was increased to 20 pounds in the local, first, and second zones; and on 1st January 1914 the limit in local, first, and second zones was further increased to 50 pounds, and in the remainder of the zones to 20 pounds. On the 16th March 1914 books and printed matter were admitted to the fourth class, or parcel post, with a rate of postage of 1 cent for each 2 ounces up to 8 ounces, the ordinary parcel post pound rates to apply to packets exceeding 8 ounces in weight. The service, as a whole, has been enormously successful. It is estimated that in the second year the post office was handling parcels at the rate of 800,000,000 annually, a figure which may be compared to its advantage with that for the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom the annual number of parcels posted is some 130,000,000, say three per head of the total population as compared with eight per head in the new service in the United States. * * * * * 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.