18
Three coal mines to be worked
experimentally.
12
be registered at the Custom-house, where the Commissioner of Customs will issue a certificate of registration and the flag to be sailed under, the certificate to be countersealed by the Superintendent.* Such vessels must exhibit the flag received from the Customs, and comply with the special rules and regulations drawn up for their management. Any vessel unprovided with a certificate of registration detected in the fraudulent use of a flag resembling the Customs flag, or flying the house flag of any foreign mercantile firm, or having a certificate and flying the flag of any foreign country, will be subject, with her cargo, to confiscation.
RULE VIII.
The Imperial Commissioner superintending foreign affairs in the South will inquire into the condition of Kin-yung, Lo-ping, and Kelung, and will depute Kin-yung,Chu-kiang, officers to work the mines at those places as an experiment. The question of the employment of foreigners to assist in mining and of using foreign machinery will be left to be given effect to by the Imperial Commissioner. The coals produced will be for sale to British and Chinese merchants without distinction.
Poyang
Lake,
Lo-ping, Kelung,
near the.
stor
atores.
Household whips'
Revised list of duty-
free articles to be published.
Dock stores to be admitted free of duty. List of articles to be hereto appended.
RULE IX.
The Rules appended to the Tariff attached to the Treaty of Tien-tsin enumerated the articles that are to be admitted free of duty for household use and as ships' stores. A revised list is to be drawn up by the Inspector-General of Customs, and will be hereto appended, of the articles that are thus to be admitted free for the use of British subjects. Should such articles be carried inland they will be dutiable, in accordance with the rule and practice that formerly obtained.
RULE X.
Docks owned by British merchants will be permitted to import such articles as they require for the repairs of ships free of duty. But on newly-built vessels there will be levied a duty of 5 per cent. ad valorem. Before being entitled to the privilege of importing their stores duty-free, such docks must be registered at the Customs, and the owners must enter into such bonds as the Customs in question may consider necessary for the protection of the revenue. A list of the articles to be imported duty-free will be prepared by the Inspector-General of Customs, and appended hereto.
Watches, emaillées à perles
Coal
gold
27
+
black
TARIFF.
IMPORTS.
V5054AA
T. M.
c.
Per pair
4
+ 0
1
0 0
T
35
0
0 Q
}}
Per 100 catties
0 0
2
0 }
0 0
silver
Pepper, white
Tin plates
Grain, foreign Free, whether imported or exported, but to take out permits in accordance with the Customs Guano
regulations, Timber. Reduction to be made after full inquiry at Shanghae. Opium
Per 100 catties And to be dealt with in accordance with the special rules
respecting that drug.
Silk, raw and thrown
Coal, native (at the southern ports)
31
37
yellow, from Sze-chuau
(at the northern ports)
(L.S.) (L.S.)
..
50 00 0
EXPORTS,
Per 100 eatties
20 0
10 0
0 F
5
0 0 4 0
*
0004
0000
RUTHERFORD ALCOCK. [Signatures of Chinese Plenipotentiaries.]
* N.B.-I consider that this rule, if acted on judiciously and quietly, wil. open all the coast and all the rivers to the enterprise of the British merchant. When China puts a moderate concession on paper, it entirely depends on the foreigner to use it in such a way as to get the most out of it.
Inclosure 2.
Sir R. Alcock to M. de Rehfues.
(Confidential.) M. le Ministre et cher Doyen,
Peking, October 20, 1869. REFERRING to a previous correspondence on the subject of Treaty revision, and more especially to my last letter of December 7, 1868, addressed to M. Vlangaly, as the Doyen at that time, I have now the honour to inform you that the terms of a Convention have been agreed upon after a protracted negotiation, and will shortly be reduced to writing, preparatory to signature.
This Convention will secure all the concessions enumerated in the Report of the Board of Trade under fourteen heads. As a printed copy of this document is already in your hands, I need not recapitulate them here.
Something additional has been conceded on both sides, involving changes in the Tariff on a few articles, and also some modifications in the mode of collecting transit-dues, and in the commercial rules, which can only take effect by common
consent.
It follows indeed of necessity, from the most-favoured-nation clause in all the Treaties, that no revision can be carried into effect without such general concurrence. Privileges or advantages cannot be unconditional, or without corre- sponding obligations; and these must be equally binding upon all who share the advantages in accordance with the declared object of such a clause.
For this reason amongst others, Her Majesty's Government would have preferred that no formal revision should take place until the right acerned to the other Treaty Powers, in order that all might enter into the negotiation at one time, and act in concert. The Chinese Government did not concur in this view, however, and it became necessary therefore either to waive all right to claim a revision, or enter singly into the necessary negotiations.
My instructions under these circumstances were to accept what the Chinese Government were willing to concede, though it might be only an instalment, in the hope that better terms may be obtained hereafter, either through the negotiatious with which other Powers under their present Treaties will be entitled to open in successive years with the Chinese Government, or from the increasing disposition of the Government and people of China to improve their relations with foreign countries.
Her Majesty's Government have been as unwilling to remain at a standstill as to have recourse to measures of coercion, by the adoption of which the valuable trade with China would be put in jeopardy. It has seemed to them that the most prudent course would be to accept the concessions which have been obtained from the Chinese Government by fair argument and amicable representation, and to wait, as regards all other matters, the development which in the natural course of things may be looked for, and which the experience of late years gives good reason to expect will attend our future trade with China.
Such being the line of policy laid down for my guidance, I have both accepted and made concessions of more or less importance, keeping in view the material condition of the Empire, the actual situation of the Government, and the true interests of both countries. I had already last year announced to Prince Kung that I held nothing was to be gained by negotiating for the exclusive advantage of either nation to the prejudice of the other; and my conviction that the interests of both must be consulted.
I am persuaded that on no other basis can permanent relations of amity and commerce be maintained. There must be reciprocity of benefits as well as a spirit of fairness and desire for mutual accord. We may not get all that could be desired
by strictly adhering to such a policy, nor obtain the most reasonable concessions even as promptly or as fully as we desire. But such as are obtained will be more willingly upheld by the central Government, and therefore less likely to be evaded by the provincial authorities or rendered nugatory by indirect means. A practical solution to the difficulty created by the persistent exactions of the local authorities, hitherto invested with a perfectly irresponsible power of local taxation, may thus be found when all privileges only to be extorted or maintained by force would fail.
It was not to be expected that China, for the first time in a position to negotiate as an independent and sovereign State, without preface or coercion would be disposed to concede everything and ask for nothing in return, or that the Chinese Government would not desire to avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by a
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