as much
half.
and
in
the
2
Li
a
as the customs dues.
case o
?
articles imported free,
1 1⁄2 per cent ad valorem
That is to
say
an article pays (say)
5 taels to get into China, and a further 2 1⁄2 taels to get into the
interior
of
China.
The contention is that
silver at the
Hung Chuang's given weight of ... day than when the existing tariff
was drawn up
is worth much less
so
that where
3 taels weight of silver could then
buy
as much as
... Sterling.
Now the English pound is
equivalent
to six or seven Taels.
The first point
that occurs to me
is why
this was not looked
into in 1888 when there might
have been a revision under the treaty.
But the English
forms stating ...
was not this ...
Merchants ...
How it has been masking this 40 years
in England would be ...
a revision,
Silver was not as low then as it is now,
but still in the ten years over this
it had fallen very much.
However
I do not see that it
has been used to
some extent
It can be doubted that
Chang has a good case.
When we have argued
against large increases
in salaries in your own colonies
on the score of fall
in Silver, we have generally
taken the line that the local purchasing power
of the dollar is
nearly as great as it used to be
and that the local produce enters largely into the cost of living.
But I do not on this occasion
have adopted Sir Mowatt's line of argument.
It seems to me that it may fairly
be allowed that China has a case.
If so,
it seems to me further
that it is expedient to
... the matter now and then
[Many words have]
... the question raised in
anticipation of
a revision in 1898.
There had better be a vision at once on
'98 or else a thorough
understanding that there shall not be
a further revision in
'98 by raising and understanding that the treaty shall not be
condemned by the
... of that year '87
a further revision in
'98 entirely till that date.
If there is a revision now, or indeed
in '98, would it be well to ...