The Amay Memorial relative to the Revision of the Preaty of Tientsin.
18th October, 1867
Enclosure W. 4 in Gevuner
Richard Graves
Sii
MacDonnell's
Despatch h: 392 of 14 Mov
1867.
The Shanghai Chamber of Commerce Memorial.
In a few papers brought by the Suwonada, in anticipation of the mail, we find the greater part, but not the whole, of the Memorial on Treaty Revision, prepared by the Chamber of Commerce of Shanghai. The great length of this document, which appears scarcely inferior in this respect to the Hongkong Memorial, precludes us from reprinting the whole. A great deal, inore- over, relates to the operation of Mixed Courts, which has less interest for Hongkong readers than for persons resident at the China ports Omitting this for the present, at all events, we reproduce some of the most interesting passages relating to general rela- tions of British subjects with the Chinese Government.
RESIDENCE IN THE INTERIOR.
With respect to residence in the interior, your memorialists would observe that it seems almost beyond a question, that unless this privilege be accorded the force and bearing of the Treaty applicable to the freedom of trade from the arbitrary restrictions placed upon it, will be wholly lost. So long as we are confined to the Treaty ports, it is within the power of the Chinese officials to tax our trade to any extent they please, and experience has fully demonstrated that they will not hesitate to make use of this power.
The right of renting land und houses in the interior would pave the way to the introduction of railways, and the development of the mineral resources of China, and your memorialiste need scarcely refer to the important advantages to be derived by all interested in steam naviga. tion from the efficient working of the coal fields of China. The recent discoveries of coal mines near Chiaking, in a particularly favourable position, gives a practical bearing to the ques
tion.
Should Her Majesty's Government not be of opinion that the Treaty will admit of residence in the interior, it is the earnest hope of your memorialists that they may consider it advisable to negotiate for this privilege; at all events for the right of residence within a fixed radius, or perhaps two hundred miles from sume or all of the treaty ports.
Your memorialists suggest that Licenses from the Consuls at the nations treaty ports should be issued, and regulatious framed under which the foreigner in the interior would be liable not only for the payment of all personal taxation to which he, in common with his Chinese neigh- hours, may lawfully be subject, but also for his appearance at the licensing port on the sum. nions of his Consul. to answer any charge which may be preferred against him,
Your niemorialists are not of opinion that the privilege would be at first numerously availed of, the necessary agents skilled in the anguage not being at hand; but they are im- pressed with the conviction that the residence of qualified foreign agents at the principal in- ternal warts is the only means of deriving accu- rate information regarding the sources of sup ply and the wants of consumption, without which no trade can be conducted on a sound insie.
Your memorialists consider the presence of these agents in the interior, and the fixed com- mutation of local taxation, known as the Transit Does, to be the proper safeguards against the exhaustive and illegal levies, which are sapping the foundations of profitable traffic, promising to render nugatory all the advantages offered by the Treaty.
INLAND NAVIGATION,
Closely allied to the privilege of residence in the interior in its bearing upon the progress of trade and the protection of traffic ron: rbitrary imposts, is the right to convey specie and mer- elandize in steam cargo boats up and down the navigable reeks connecting the country dis. tricts with the shipping ports: on which sub- jest the Chamber of Commerce addressed your Excellency at length on the 25th July, 1866,
It is desirable to point out that two very distinct questions appear to have been con- That of founded with regard to this matter. navigating the whole of the rivers in China with vesacls bearing foreign flags has become mixed up with the minor one of a merchant be- ing permitted to send into the interior small steam cargo boats for the purpose of transmit- ting his treasure and goods, or bringing down
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such produce as he may have purchased. Ta former question, viz., the right to navigate all the rivers and waters of China in large steam- ers, is one which your memorialists are not pre- pared to open; but the latter, which applies only to the employment of small steam cargo hoats. is of considerable importance.
The acquisition of the right has been ad- vocated for the reasons that it is in accordance with spirit of the Treaty, that it will substitute for an antiquated system of carriage,-at once expensive and hazardous, --a speedy, and safe mode of lighterage, and will afford a safeguard | against illegal levies upon merchandize in brunaibu. The Chinese have opposed the in- novation, on the grounds that classes of the population would be thrown out of employment. and that control over the foreign crews would be impracticable.
Your memorialists need not expose the fallacy of the economical grounds on which opposition to the proposal is offered by the Chinese Go- vernment, or enter at length upon a considera- tion of the mauifost benefits which would accrue, no less to the interests of trade than to the amelioration of the condition of the Chinese people. from free communication between the boust and the interior; but with regard to the exercise of control over the proceedings of the boats and their crews, vour memorialists consi- der that all that would be necessary to secure the Chinese Goverument from evasion of their fiscal regulations, and the native population against lawless outrages, would be to apply to foreign craft the same systems which is already in force with regard to native boats, viz., that the steamers should be registered at the Cus. toms Houses of the Treaty parts to which their owners may belong, and to provide that bonds taken from responsible sureties that the ve8. sels shall be continued to legitimate traffic. and their crews be held promptly amenable to the jurisdiction of the Consular authorities. It may also be deemed desirable to make stipulations as to the capacity and build of the steamers which it will be lawful to employ. ILLEGAL LOCAL TAXATION.
Passing from political question to those of an administrative nature, your memorialists would respectfully urge upon your Excellency's con- sideration the urgent necessity for an Imperial declaration to prevent illegal local taxation, and the exaction of dues upon foreign goods in transitu.
The levy of a single cash upon foreign manu factures, in excess of the Treaty Dues, ought, it appears to your memorialists, to become the subject of prompt remonstrance on the part of the Consul, and immediate demand for redress. Whatever may be said about the right of the Chinese to tax their own subjects, it cannot by any plausibility of argument be held that a Chinese official has the right to send his ser- rants into a foreigner's warehouse in order to cxact a fixed contribution from the purchaseTA, in excess of the Tariff rates already paid. Your- memorialists beg to illustrate their views by putting the question of what would have been said, if, immediately after the conclusion of the Cobden Treaty with France, the French Go- vernment had proceeded to place a tax, not apon English goods, but upon those who traded in them. or what would have been thought if in the British Parliament, a poll tax had been voted upon all persons who dealt in French Wines? Iris scarcely to be imagined that such ill-faith would have been tolerated, and yet it is what we are submitting to in China.
The Chinese officials are never at a loss for a plausible excuse to levy taxes of this nature. At one time it is a war, at another a famine, at a third a rebellion; and the most noticeable feature in the matter is, that when once a tax of this kind has been imposed, it continues in force long after the cause of its being originally raised has ceased to exist, and when no excuse whatever can be found for its levy.
Your memorialists therefore suggest that, seeing the constant bad faith which the native authorities are guilty of, it would be desirable to stand strictly upon, the Treaty rights with regard to duties, and insist that any taxes raised upou foreign goods, or upon those trading in foreign goods on account of their so trading. should be considered as a gross disregard of Treaty obligations on the part of the Chinese authorities, and the occasion of an urgent claim upon the Government.
TRANSIT DUES.
In respect to transit dues, your memorialists are strongly in favour of the system which provides for a commutation of inland dues upon Imports and exports; and, upon careful con sideration, are of opinion that great advantage