Paris in the era of
Louis XIV was one of the world's most populous cities, containing more than 500,000 residents in 22,000 residences, 500 major roads, 100 public squares, and 9 bridges. The narrow Parisian road network was created during the
medieval times, and did not make the establishment of public transportation attractive. In a corporation founded in November 1661 on the initiative of
Blaise Pascal, with the participation of the Duke of Roannez (governor and lieutenant-general of the province of
Poitou), the Marquis de Sourches (knight of the king's orders and Grand Provost of the Hotel), and the Marquis de Crenan, the entrepreneurs presented a request to establish an operation for "carriages which would always make the same journeys...and would always leave at scheduled times, without waiting to be filled up, even empty, without the people that enjoy that commodity having to pay for the empty seats". The system of
public coaches was approved and instituted by a judgement of the King's Counsel on 19 January 1662, and signed by Louis XIV. The
letters patent granted them the exclusive right of operating such a service. After the first trials starting 26 February, five routes were progressively started from 18 March 1662, linking multiple
historical quarters of Paris. From its inception, the new service was received positively. Against the wishes of the King, the
Parlement of Paris barred the commoners (soldiers,
pages,
liverymen, and laborers) from riding in the carriages "to assure the greater comfort and freedom of the bourgeois and meritous classes". These "safety" measures, along with others such as a police ordinance that threatened "whipping and greater penalties" for those who interfered with proper operation on the service, and a fare increase from five to six
French sols, eventually caused public opinion to turn against the service, causing the enterprise's profitability to decline. According to Marc Gaillard, the service ran until 1677. Though the precise fate of the
carrosses à cinq sols is not documented by any contemporary sources, certain historians suggest that the service disappeared only a few years after the parlement's restrictive measures entered effect. The franchise for the service was recorded as having been transferred to the Sieur de Givry, although it does not confirm whether a service was actually running at the time. == Operations and routes ==