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-acting bolonial, Secretary.
The Memel of the Chamber of Com-
cer Révision of Article XXXIII.
of the Treaty."
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS." SIR-As a nember of the Chamber of Com- merce, I regret to find myself under the neces- sity of expressing my dissent from the com- ments and suggestions inserted in the above Memorial (paragraph 37) about the alteration of the present mode of collection of the duties. bly reasons for so doing are the following:--
1. The Memorial does not particularize the alleged inconveniences or exactions suffered by the foreign trade from the working of the ar rnogements now in force. It would, however, have been necessary, in order to support the imputations embodied in the Memorial, to spe- cify and illustrate by authentic cases and in- stances what "abuses are committed by the so-called Government Banks attached to each Custom House.”
2. The assertion that the Government Banks have it in their power to advance or de- press the value of sycee as it suits their interest and convenience" is open to discussion; but, assuming for the sake of argument that it were founded on fact, the Chamber does not explain bow this injures foreign merchants.
3. They are not bound to pay the duties in aycee if the market price of silver in that shape is unduly forced up, they can tender dollars according to the assays made at Canton (18th July, 1848), the basis adopted by the Treaty of Tientsin of 1858 for the conversion of foreign money into official currency or Haikwan sycee. 4-The assays referred to are admitted by competent bullionist to give rise to no serious objection. The Chamber does not point out in what respect they should now be altered.
5. As the Canton assays only embrace francs, dollars, and rapees, it might with reason be urged that they should be made more comprehensive, so that bar and cake silver of refined touch be receivable at their respective fineness compared to the Chinese official standard.
6.The Chamber seems to assume that Haik- wan sycee taels are but an imaginary curren- cy. It is a decided error; the Haikwan tael is the Government weight equal to 582.1 grainė of British troy weight. and the Haikwan ayece tael (100 touch) is a weight of 582 grains troy of pure silver.
Many millions of taels of Haikwan sycec have, to my certain knowledge, passed from Chinese into European hands during the last eight or nine years, the Chamber therefore commits a palpable mistake in consigning this very substantial standard to the realms of fiction.
7-Fiven if the Haikwan sycee had never been in existence, for all purposes relating to the Treaty it would, as a nominal standard, be unavailable, for it is an equitable and a well- defined unit of value.
S.--The proposition of the Chamber "that the tariff rates should be payable in whatever ein or bullion may be recognized as the mer- cantil currency
for transactions between foreigners and Chinese at the various ports. without any addition for premiura," is not. admissible on account of the extreme confusion that such a system (or rather absence of sys- tem) would engender.
9.-The Chamber make no reference to Rule 10 of the Articles of Trade annexed to the Trenty of Tientsin, whereby the sound principle of a uniform system is recognized for the col lection of duties at all ports. No cause is ad- duced for justifying the abrogation or modi- fication of the above Rule, which, as it stands, is concordant with the ordinary basis of inter- national treaties of commerce as well as with sonad views of political economy,
10.-The suggestion in the Memorial "that dollars he received in payment of duties, on the same terms as they are received in general commercial transactions," does not rest upon any tangible ground, and if carried into effect would entail almost daily fluctuations in the rates of collection, as the exchange of dollare against sycee in mercantile intercourse is ruled by the ordinary influences of demand and supply.
* Article XXXIII reads thus: Duties shall be paid to the Bankers authorised by the Chinese Government to receive the same in its behalf, either in sycee or in foreign money, according to the assay made at Canton on the 13th of July, 1848.
11.The prognostic advanced by the Cham- ber in urging the proposition criticized in the above paragraph, “that it might be the means of introducing largely into China the dollars coined at the Hongkong Royal Mint, and thus greatly benefit the Colony," is a mere fallacy.
}
If the Chinese Government concedes the extension of article XXXIII. so as to make it applicable to foreign bar silver, I cannot see what advantages the British trade would ever gain by converting their silver bullion into Hongkong Mint dollars, at a cost of 1 and 21 per cent. (besides loss of time), with a view to tender auch coin in payment to the Chinese Customs instead of simply handing them over the bar silver itself at the Tariff valuation.
Upon the supposition of bar silver not being made a legal tender on the same footing as foreign coin, it could always be melted into, or exchanged against, lumps or shoes of current sycee at a much smaller charge than the coat of coinage into dollars.
The Memorial refers to the discount (errone- ously termed premium) charged by the Customs of the Port of Foochow on Mexican dollars and Spanish dollars (the latter being also im properly designated as Foochow dollars), and quote this as an instance of the evil resulting from the present system of collection, stating formerly dollars were received at 6 per cent.
discount.
I have been unable as yet to obta'n eircum- stantial and reliable information regarding the reasons which prompted the temporary reduction alluded to. There must have been some transitory canse in operation, of which no trace is found in the Memorial, to warrant such a step. Perhaps it originated in the depressed value of sycee, which prevailed for some years, owing to the particular position of exchange between China and India; still, whatever these causes may have been, they bave long since ceased to exist, and it is not shown by the Chamber why the Chinese should have been prevented from putting again in force the mode of valuation recognized by the Treaty,
13-It is difficult to understand what relation the fact quoted at the end of paragraph 37 of the Memorial has to the matter at isane. It is much further back than the date of the Tientsin Treaty that the difficulties adverted to arose con- cerning the extreme depreciation of the Mexican dollars when first introduced in the China trade, where the Carolos dollars had been for many years before acknowledged as the only medium of payment in coin in transactions with foreigners. It was quite proper for the then re- presentative of the British Government to in- terpose his influence in obtaining the recog nition of the newly-introduced coin at a fair valuation; exactions had been committed, ex- traordinary squeezes imposed, and the consul by whose efforts they were put an end to de- served the gratitude of the mercantile commu- nity of the period;—but under present arrauge- ments, what "reform of magnitude can be effected," in reference to the conversion of Mexi can or other dollars into Chinese currency, does not appear when the question is divested of all vague and ill-digested assertions.
The Hongkong Mint dollar has been assayed by the Canton authorities at its full legal fine- ness of 9001,000; it is admitted for its real weight at the rate of 111.11 taels in Hongkong dollars. ae equivalent to 100 tacls Haik wal aycee, viz., at 10 per cent. discount. This is full intrinsic value and leaves no room for complaint. Mexican dollars, by the assay of 1843, were valued at 894/1000, or 111.9 tacle weight in Mexican dollars, equivalent to 100 tuels Haik- wan sycee, or a discount of 10.634 per cent. The Foochow Customs, as stated in the Memo- rial, only charged 10 per cent. where lies the defective point in this valuation in toe opinion of the Chamber?
14-In conclusion, I would express a wish that the matter be further discussed, and that, instead of pursuing the redress of imaginary grievances, the re-modelling of Article XXXIII. be only urged so far as is consistent with the present uniform standard, and so that the pro- visions regulating the conversion of foreign coin into Chinese official currency be made applicable also to bar silver and other denominations of bullion of unobjectionable purity.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Hongkong, 25th Oct., 1867.
V. C. KEESSER.
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