A local parcel post service was established in Paris in 1881 by arrangement with the Compagnie des Messageries Nationales, but it did not prove profitable, and was discontinued in 1887. A new service was set up in 1890. The contractor is required to make two deliveries on week-days and one on Sundays and feast days (_les jours fériés_), and to maintain an office in each arrondissement. The system has, however, developed. Three daily deliveries are now given, and nearly 500 offices have been opened. The rate of postage is 25 centimes for parcels not exceeding 5 kilogrammes, and 40 centimes for parcels between 5 and 10 kilogrammes. The total number of inland parcels posted during the year 1913-14 was about 52 millions. * * * * * PARCEL POST IN GERMANY In the days of the horse-posts it was obviously undesirable to burden the mails with weighty packages, and the transmission of parcels by post was from the first discouraged in Germany, although not forbidden. Parcels were charged as letters by the half-ounce, a sufficiently high rate to prevent the use of the posts for their transmission to any inconvenient degree. The first Imperial posts did not, indeed, undertake the transmission of parcels. The business was left to private enterprise, and was conducted by the _Boten-Anstalten_. The posts themselves were, however, made use of for the transmission of parcels of merchandise for private individuals at least as far back as the Thirty Years' War. Owing to the dislocation of industry and commerce during that war and the high rates of postage charged, the number of parcels was extremely small, and their transmission was confined to limited areas.[435] As early as 1635 the messengers were allowed to carry parcels so long as their travelling was not thereby impeded,[436] and in 1652 a regular parcel service was in operation between Basel and Zurich, Schaffhausen, Lindau, and Ulm. In 1660 the Great Elector ordered that no parcels should thenceforward be carried by the posts free of postage. This may perhaps be taken as the origin of a recognized parcel post service in Prussia.[437] The rates charged were at first based on the numerous diverse circumstances which governed the early letter rates. They were increased in the event of any rise in the price of provender, and varied according to the mode of transmission and according as the parcels were sent by day or night, in fine weather or in bad weather.[438] In some cases the rate was varied according to the nature of the contents of the parcels.