[689] _Ibid._, 1891, p. 6; app., p. 39. [690] _Ibid._, 1899, p. 7; 1906, p. 1. [691] _Rep. P. G._, 1907, pp. 4-5. In 1863 arrangements were made with the principal European countries for a marked reduction in letter postage rates. With France a rate of 8_d._ or 10_d._ for a quarter of an ounce, according to the country in which the postage was paid, had existed. This was reduced to 4_d._ payable in either country. With Italy and Spain the existing rates of 1_s._ 1_d._ and 10_d._ respectively for a quarter of an ounce were reduced to 6_d._ The Belgian sixpenny half-ounce rate was made 4_d._, and with the German Postal Union the rate was reduced from 8_d._ to 6_d._ for a half-ounce letter. In general these were prepaid rates.[692] The first Postal Union meeting at Berne in 1874 reduced still further the old rates and simplified the rules for the settlement of postal payments between the subscribing nations. A uniform rate for prepaid letters of 2-1/2_d._ the half ounce was agreed to, 5_d._ for an unpaid letter. Post cards were charged at half the rate of a prepaid letter, newspapers a penny for four ounces, printed papers (other than newspapers), books, legal and commercial documents, and samples of merchandise a penny for two ounces.[693] In 1891 the uniform letter rate existing among those countries in Europe which were members of the Postal Union was extended, so far as the United Kingdom was concerned, to all parts of the globe. On the first of October, 1907, a further reduction was made when the unit of weight for outward foreign and colonial letters was raised from half an ounce to an ounce, and the charge on foreign letters for each unit after the first was reduced from 2-1/2_d._ to 1-1/2_d._[694] [692] _Ibid._, 1864, p. 21; 1859, pp. 19-20. [693] _Ibid._, 1875, p. 13. [694] _Ibid._, 1892, p. 8; 1906, pp. 1-2.