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 necessary, in view of the development of the private undertakings, to confer upon it the exclusive right to deal with local traffic. At first the proposal was to extend the monopoly only to closed letters, but the Reichstag widened the prohibition, and forbade private undertakings to conduct arrangements for the transmission of letters, sealed or unsealed, postcards, printed matter, or samples addressed to particular persons.[565] The traffic left open to private enterprise, viz. the delivery of unaddressed open letters, parcels, newspapers, and magazines, was regarded by most of the proprietors as insufficient to warrant the continuance of their undertakings, and on the 1st April 1900 almost all the private establishments of this kind were discontinued. The proprietors were, however, compensated by the State for the loss of their profits.[566] The first undertaking of this kind had been established in Berlin in the 'seventies, under the title _Brief- und Druckschriften-Expedition_. Its success led to the establishment in Berlin and various other places of similar undertakings, some of which were profitable, but most of which were unsuccessful. The cheaper rates, however, attracted a considerable volume of traffic, and at the time of their suppression some seventy-seven such undertakings were in existence. Most of them were not of long standing, only fourteen of the seventy-seven having been founded in the 'eighties, forty having been founded in the years 1895-6-7, in a period of speculation resulting from the high dividends paid by the Berliner Packetfahrt-Aktiengesellschaft. The size of the undertakings varied largely. In some cases the whole business was conducted by the members of a family; in others as many as a hundred men were employed; and in the case of the Berliner Packetfahrt-Aktiengesellschaft the letter traffic alone employed a thousand men. The amount of traffic dealt with was considerable, and large additions to the postal staff were found necessary.[567] Some of the employees of the private establishments were taken over by the Imperial Postal Administration, and a sum of 1-1/2 million marks was paid as compensation to employees who were not taken over.