The article focuses on the shaping of the French concept of the public service at the end of the eighteenth century. It takes into account interactions between material shifts and linguistic evolutions so as to scrutinize the experimental content and the horizon of expectations carried out by the notion. It provides insight into the different temporalities of the initial stage of the process. Special focus is placed on the Revolutionary moment and the particular pattern that it gives rise to for a short period of time. In this configuration, the legislator defines “common interest” activities so as to guarantee the existence of freedom of industry and equal opportunity among actors pursuing their own interests.