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2. The Hatamen Octroi and the Diplomatic Corps.
Before 1900 octroi difficulties never arose. The only two foreign firms admitted in the capital, Kierulff and Co. and Tallieu, were supposed to provide nobody but the legations with foreign articles and provisions; therefore they obtained licences for exemption of duty from the Tien-tsin Customs Taotai whenever they applied for them.
》 Other imports from Tien-tsin to Pekin were unimportant owing to the difficult and expensive transhipment via Tungchow. In 1889 the German firm Rodats (later on In a letter of the 5th February, 1890, the Tsung-li Imbeck) was admitted too. yamên limited the number of foreign firms in Peking to one for each legation possessing own legation grounds in the city.
After the occupation by the allied forces in 1900 the octroi station disappeared, and was not reopened till the 24th August, 1901.
In a despatch of the 30th September, 1901, Prince Ching and Li Hung-chang asked the foreign Ministers that in future licences for goods, destined for the use of the legations or legation guards, should be obtained on application by the Wai-wu Pu --Tien-tsin still being in the hands of the Powers-and that in all other cases foreign merchants who might bring in goods for sale were required, on the arrival of the goods inside the boundaries of the Hatamen station, to report at the station and pay duty.
The treaties only providing a general transit duty of 24 per cent. ad valorem, the Peking octroi of 3 per cent. is exceeding this rate at per cent., and makes with Sir Robert the Tien-tsin native customs duty of 2 per cent. a total of 5 per cent. Hart, asked by Baron von der Goltz about that question, declared he was going to induce the octroi station to acknowledge transit passes issued by the Maritime Customs, ie., to be content with the 24 per cent. transit tax paid in the port, the transit duties of such goods to be delivered to the octroi station by the Customs. Tais proposal, however, was abandoned by the Chinese authorities.
At a meeting of the diplomatic body on the 12th October, 1901, it was decided that every legation should hand in the following identic reply through their interpreters :-
"Le 30 septembre le Prince Ching et Li Fung-chang ont fait savoir qu'ils avaient l'intention de maintenir, conformément aux usages internationaux, la franchise de l'octroi de Pékin en faveur des légations et des gardes des légations, mais que dorénavant ils ne pourraient pas accorder cette franchise aux négociants étrangers dans la ville pour les marchandises qui ne seraient pas destinées aux légations et à leurs gardes.
"Je serai disposé à accéder à cette demande, pourvu que le Gouvernement chinois n'insiste pas sur la question soulevée par son Altesse le Prince Ch'ing dans la lettre du 4 octobre concernant la présence des marchands étrangers dans la ville.”
The Russian Minister, who at first had consented to the full text of this document, later on omitted the paragraph concerning the tacitly admitted residence of foreign merchants in Peking outside the legation's quarter.
On the 1st November, 1901, the Wai-wu Pu accepted this compromise in a despatch addressed to the dean of the diplomatic corps, and asked for detailed lists of the foreign merchants residing in the city and the kind of their trade.
Having been requested by the German Minister to communicate the octroi tariff to the diplomatic corps, the Wai-wu Pu answered the dean in a despatch of the 9th November, 1901, that the new tariff had not yet been fixed, and that for the time there would be levied an octroi of 3 per cent. ad valorem.
On the 14th November, 1902, Prince Ch'ing and Grand Secretary Jung-lu, superintendents of the Hatamen octroi station, published a new octroi tariff, per yard, on all textiles entering Peking, and sent twenty-three accompanying samples of of fabrics, naming the particular rate for each. This tariff was communicated direct, and not through the Wai-wu Pu; it was circulated among the foreign representatives, and its receipt acknowledged by the dean, and it has never been objected to by any legation.
In 1904 Prince Ch'ing stated in a despatch of the 22nd May, addressed to the dean, that foreign merchants trying to defraud octroi duties, in case of being taken in the act, should be liable to pay fines imposed by the octroi station. Again, no objections were made, and the dean acknowledged the receipt of the despatch.
Since then the Peking octroi has been tacitly admitted by the diplomatic corps within the city walls of Peking.
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3. The recent Extension of the Octroi System beyond the City Walls. Before the construction of the Kalgan Railway the goods sent from Tien-tsin up to Kalgan, Mongolia, and Russia had to pass on camels, carts, &c., the city of Peking, and paid the octroi at the city gates. With the gradual completion of that line trade to Kalgan developed more and more, and increased enormously after the opening of the through traffic to Hsuan-hua-fu, and later on to Kalgan. In view of the fact that the railway does not strike the city of Peking, and to avoid consequent loss, the Hatamen octroi established a branch station at Fengtai Junction this summer, and is evidently intending to levy octroi from all Chinese and foreign goods passing there by the railway from Tien-tsin to Kalgan and other places.
A complaint of the consular body in Tien-tsin laid before the diplomatic corps by the Japanese consul-general in a letter of the 13th November, 1909, states that the Peking octroi tax has been imposed on various occasions at Fengtai upon foreign goods passing that place under inward transit passes to places in the interior other than the metropolis."
4. The Legal Question,
In the correspondence between the diplomatic corps and the Chinese authorities the following three questions have frequently been combined:
1. The exemption from duty for articles and provisions used by the legations and legation guards.
2. The fact that Peking has not yet been opened to foreign trade, and that consequently no foreign merchant has the right of residing there.
3. The admissibility of the Hatamen octroi.
According to the clear text of the different treaty stipulations any foreign merchant desiring to convey duly imported articles to any inland market may clear his goods of all transit duties by payment of a commutation transit tax equal to half of the import duty in respect of dutiable articles, and 21 per cent. upon the value in respect of duty-free articles; and on payment thereof certificates shall be issued which exempt the goods from all further inland charges whatsoever.
The Hatamen octroi of 3 per cent. is nothing but a common "lo-ti" duty which is included in the transit pass tax everywhere else in China. Therefore goods covered by transit passes of the Tien-tsin Customs should, strictly speaking, be brought into the city without paying further taxation. But the Tien-tsin Customs are by a local " regulation" not allowed to issue transit passes for Peking; hence foreign merchants are sometimes obliged to pay 2 per cent, at the Tien-tsin Native Customs and 3 per cent. in Peking, i.e., 5 per cent. upon the value or double the transit tax.
At present the Chinese apparently are endeavouring to extend the so-called "boundaries of the Hatamen station as far as possible around Peking.
Enclosure 4 in No. 1.
Dean of Diplomatic Body to Prince Ching.
Pékin, le
avril, 1910.
PAR une lettre en date du 7 décembre, 1909, j'ai eu l'honneur de faire connaître à votre Altesse qu'ayant été saisis de plusieurs réclamations de négociants étrangers et d'une protestation du corps consulaire de Tien-tsin contre la perception, par l'octroi de Pékin, dans la capitale même, ainsi que dans différentes localités de des marchandises la région, notamment à Fengtai, de taxes spéciales sur d'importation étrangère, munies de passes de transit, les représentants des diverses Puissances se voyaient obligés de s'adresser au Quai-ou Pou, pour qu'il soit mis fin à ces abus.
Le 11 décembre dernier, 29 de la 10 lune de la 1 année Siuan-t'ong, votre Altesse a bien voulu me répondre que :-
"La perception de taxes par l'octroi de Pékin dans les bureaux de la capitale et les diverses stations qui en dépendent au dehors, était un usage depuis longtemps existant et qu'il ne semblait pas que de nouveaux droits aient été établis "
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