The Rhine is governed by an international regime. This dates back to 1804 when the Patent Treaty was signed between France and the German Empire. It contained the first rules relating to the abolition of the many local tolls and regulations and assigned responsibility for shipping and tasks related to this activity to a central organ. This process of internationalization was not abandoned during the Congress of Vienna. The Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, consisting of delegates from the riparian States, was set up in 1815 and was commissioned to draw up a new set of international rules on the basis of guidelines established by the Congress. The principle that navigation on the Rhine ‘sous le rapport du commerce’ [commercial shipping] should not be prohibited to anyone was a fundamental assumption in Vienna. Apart from this freedom of shipping — both in an economic and in a nautical sense — the aim was to abolish, or at least restrict, national tolls, duties and taxes, and to introduce a uniform approach in the traffic regulations applicable to the Rhine.