Not exceeding 250 grammes 10 pf. 250-500 grammes 20 pf. 500 grammes to 1 kilogramme (maximum) 30 pf. Compared with the total postal traffic the number of packets passing at the reduced rate is quite small, but it is increasing, and is sufficiently large to indicate that the privilege affords a considerable advantage to the public. The number of packets of _Geschäftspapiere_ was:-- 1904 10,793,620 1907 16,789,260 1910 23,632,220 1913 34,328,950 * * * * * (IV) POSTCARDS The idea of postcards originated with Dr. H. von Stephan, who submitted a proposal for their introduction at the meeting of the delegates of the German Postal Union at Karlsruhe in 1865. Dr. von Stephan had realized that the ordinary form of the letter missive, although most suitable in many ways for many kinds of correspondence, was not always convenient. Much commercial correspondence might be conducted with briefer and less formal communications, and for such short and urgent messages a simple and less costly means would be welcomed. The proposal was therefore for the issue of cards which should be addressed on the front, and at the back should bear the written message.[522] The cards should be transmitted unenclosed. The proposal was not well received by the delegates. It was, however, revived in 1869 by Professor Herrmann of Vienna, who brought it to the notice of the Austrian postal administration. It was viewed favourably by that administration, and the cards were introduced in the Austrian service on the 1st October 1869, being sold at the price of 5 kreuzer. The innovation was an immediate success, nearly three million cards being sold in the first three months; and following on this success the cards were soon introduced in most other countries. Except in France, and for the first two years in Germany, the rate charged has from the first been one-half the minimum rate for letters. In France the minimum for postcards bearing ordinary messages has never been less than 10 centimes.[523] This reduction of 50 per cent. cannot be justified on any ground of cheaper handling. The manipulation and conveyance of postcards is perhaps slightly less expensive than that of ordinary light letters, but any such difference is small, and in point of fact postcards are usually regarded as causing a little more trouble in the process of sorting. For all practical purposes it may safely be assumed that postcards and ordinary light letters involve approximately the same cost for their handling and transmission.[524] This difference in the rates of postage charged on ordinary light letters and postcards, respectively, is therefore either a standing evidence of the fiscal character of the rate for light letters, or of the uneconomic character of one or other of the rates, or of both.