La concession des services maritimes postaux au xixe siècle. Le cas exemplaire des Messageries Maritimes

Creation, in xixe century France, of regular maritime postal public services by steamships led to make a choice between two way of management, state control or concession. In 1837 the service was created in the Mediterranean, with the first formula: it was a technical success, but a financial disaster. The disengagement of the state was progressive: according to the English model, the government grants as soon as 1850 postal relation between France and Corsica to a private firm, and in 1851 for all postal services in the Mediterranean, in favour of the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes. Against public service obligations the concessionaire enjoyed exclusivity and subventions. It was first a success that results in an extension of concession (South Atlantic, Pacific, Indian Ocean), but the system turned to a yoke for both parties. The renewal of the concession in 1911 instituted an adjusted system (financial control of the State, participation of the State to the benefits, revisability of subvention). But reform was not sufficient and the state control is reinforced after the First Word War.