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* 61721 པa8ess-Ai
388 C. O.
20 883
Printed for the use of the Foreign Office. November 9j 1882/
CONFIDENTIAL.
(4684.)
Memorandum on the recent Correspondence relative to the Proposal of the Siamese Government to license the Sale of Foreign Spirits.
Mr. Palgrave, No. 67; October 15, 1881.
In Prince Prisdang's note;
August 29, 1882.
THE principal alcoholic drink in Siam at the time of the conclusion of the first Commercial Treaties with foreign Powers was a spirit resembling "raki," and extracted from rice. The manufacture of it was a Government mono- poly, and it was sold at a high price.
About the year 1870 a similar, but much stronger, spirit, called "samshu," began to be imported from China, and was subjected on its arrival to the ordinary 3 per cent. import duty, but its strength and cheapness soon made it more popular than the native spirit, and the trade has increased until at present no less than six steamers ply regularly between Bangkok and Hong Kong bringing little else but "samshu;" while in China itself new factories have been established expressly to supply the Siamese market, and many large Chinese firms in Bangkok depend almost entirely on the trade.
The Siamese Government, uneasy at the com- petition thus created with their own spirit monopoly, and being hindered by their Treaty engagements from augmenting the import duty, have expressed a desire to license the sale of imported spirit, as an indirect check upon the thing sold, and made the following proposal in September 1881 to the foreign Representatives at Bangkok:-
"The Siamese Government has concluded that, in order to prevent the evil arising from drunken- ness, and protect the lives of their people from
[1799]
B