In Banking Co. v. Smith, 128 U.S. 174 (1888), it was said that the power of the state to prescribe the charges of a railroad company for the carriage of persons and merchandise within its limits-in the absence of any provision in the charter of the company constituting a contract vesting it with authority over those matters-was 'subject to the limitation that the carriage is not required without reward, or upon conditions amounting to the taking of property for public use without just compensation; and that what is done does not amount to a regulation of foreign or interstate commerce.'