IMPORTS FROM GREAT BRITAIN.
HONGKONG & WIAMPOA.
SHANGHAE.
1855.
1965.
1850.
Cotton Piece Goods,.
£ 501,776.
£1,072,161
£ 742,672.
1866.
.£3,216,906
Cotton Twist,
150,913.
442,640
2,190.
6,796
Woollen & Worsted Goods,.
65,818..
929,772
Long Elle...
20,925.
16,090
Metals,.
111,398.
150,011
142,214.. 80,155. 46,164.
1,027,951
95,751
107,149
Other Descriptions of Goods
and Coals,
76,777..
368,251
29,909....... 749,698
£927,607
£2,278,865
£ 993,304
£5,204,251
Increase..£4,210,947
Reduction of Tariff on fin. porta.
Increase ..£1,851,258
Total of Increase.. £5,562,205
(19.)
The returns of Imports to Shanghae show a marked improvement and should be the best argument in favor of giving extended facilities to trade with interior markets. Since 1861 British subjects have had access to the great consuming districts bordering on the Yangtsze, and the result appears in the statements now brought forward. There is every thing to encourage advance; there is however no disposition shown by the Chinese Government to entertain proposals to give Her Majesty's subjects more special admission to the great trading marts of the country.
(20.)
Foreseeing that difficulties may be raised with regard to extended intercourse when the High Commissioners meet next year, the Chamber is anxious that Her Majesty's Government should bear in mind the importance of combatting the notion of anything approaching to a retrograde movement. At the present juncture Foreign Trade has received a severe check from the extreme depression pervading commerce generally, it is therefore a matter of great moment that everything be done to stimulate and re-enliven that which directly acts upon the Manufacturing trade and the Shipping interests of Great Britain and is indirectly conducive to the welfare of certain sections of the British people.
(21.)
In 1856 the British Tariff imposed a Duty upon Tea of One Shilling and Nine Pence (1/9) per pound and on Manufactured Silks a rate of Three Shillings (3.) to Ten Shillings (10/.) per pound and on particular descriptions a rate of Fifteen per cent (15%) ad valorem. The Duty on Manufactured Silks has been abolished and on Tea reduced from One Shilling and Nine Pence to Six Pence per pound.
(22.)
Taking the shipments of Tea from China to Great Britain for one year, 1866, the reduction of Duty, compared with what would have been paid had the rate remained at One Shilling and Nine Pence, amounts for that single year to the very large sum of Seven Million Sterling (£7,000,000); the aggregate reduction therefore made during the ten years now closing is a sum total immeasurably exceeding any concession that the Chinese Government will be called upon to make. To this favorable state of affairs may be added the fact that the Export of Tea to the United Kingdom, which in 1856 was about 88,500,000 lbs., increased in 1866 to 114,900,000lbs., giving to the Imperial Maritime Customs a gradual increase in Revenue, which, up to the present time, has received no check and is likely to continue on the increase.
(23.)
The Treaty of Tientsin having been based on an intercourse of reciprocity, this Chamber contends that Her Majesty's Government has fair claim to very full consideration, and has strong ground on which to frame request for alterations in the existing Tariff. Believing that this view of the position of affairs will be
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