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It is further agreed that, for the present, Article III, stipulating for the compulsory payment of transit dues on certain British subjects, shall not take effect at the port of Niu-chuang. It is further agreed that, at the ports of Wen- chow and Wuhu, which are opened to British trade by Articles VI and X, British subjects shall enjoy the same advantages and immunities as they enjoy at the ports already opened to trade.
It is also understood that, in connection with the pilotage arrangements in Article X, China will take such measures as may be necessary for the lighting, buoying, and policing of the coast, rivers, and ports, and for the conservation of the same, the tonnage dues being charged with the outlay.
A general statement of such measures, with the amounts expended, will form a part of the returns made public each year by the Inspector-General.
The Chinese Government is declared to have complete jurisdiction along its coasts and rivers, and the British Government will insure due respect on the part of British shipmasters and others, to such rules and regulations as shall be formed, necessary for the effective conservance of the ports and rivers open to trade.
This despatch, supplementing the Convention this day signed by the High Contracting Parties, is addressed on the same day to his Excellency the British Minister.
Inclosure 4.
M. de Rehfues to Sir R. Alcock.
M. le Ministre et cher Collègue,
Peking, ce 25 Octobre, 1869. J'AI reçu la note que vous avez bien voulu m'adresser relativement à la conclu- sion des négociations pour la révision du Traité de Tien-tsin, et je me suis empressé de la porter à la connaissance de nos collègues. Je vous félicite d'avoir enfin mené à bon port ces négociations laborieuses, et je ne doute pas que mon Gouvernement ne preuve un intérêt vif au résultat; mais avant d'adresser à cet égard un rapport circonstancié à Berlin, il faut attendre, ainsi que vous le comprendrez, le moment où je serais mis à même d'examiner le texte même de la Convention signée le 23 courant entre vous et le Gouvernement Chinois.
Sir,
Inclosure 5.
Je saisis, &c. (Signé)
Sir R. Alcock to the Prince of Kung.
REHFUS.
Peking, October 6, 1869.-
I HAVE been instructed to represent to the Governement of His Imperial Majesty the expediency of some relaxation of the rules by which the British merchant is at present prevented from importing salt into China.
The relaxation contemplated is this: that the Chinese Government allow the British merchants to import into the port of Shanghae a limited number of cargoes of salt, say a cargo per month, or twelve cargoes a year, for the period of five years. An import duty would, of course, be levied on the article, and by means of the foreign collectorate the trade could be put on a satisfactory footing.
It must be well known to your Highness that a supply of good and cheap salt for the people is a most important consideration, second only, indeed, to that of grain, quantities of which China is glad to receive from foreign countries.
Fifteen years ago the import of salt to British India was prohibited, and the salt trade generally in that country was on much the same footing as is that of China. Year after year the restrictions on its import have been gradually removed, and foreign salt is now admitted on payment of a fixed duty like other goods.
The results have been advantageous to Government and people; the salt revenue in India has doubled; the people can get good salt at a cheap rate; the duty is collected in one payment at the port of entry, so that the salt smuggler has ceased to exist. The labourer who produced the native salt, now produces jute for the English market, rice, and a variety of oil-bearing plants, working for a much higher rate of wages than he did previously, and becoming a producer instead of a consumer of food.
I submit the above consideration to your Imperial Highness, and am satisfied that the experiment suggested will be highly advantageous both to the British salt merchants and to the revenue and people of China, while such an experimental concession would be received with satisfaction by Her Majesty's Government.
I renew,
&c.
(Translation.)
(Signed)
Inclosure 6.
RUTHERFORD ALCOCK.
The Prince of Kung to Sir R. Alcock.
THE Prince of Kung makes a communication in reply.
ON the 6th instant his Highness received a despatch from the British Minister requesting that, as an experiment during five years, one foreign ship per month- during the year twelve in all-might be permitted to bring a cargo of salt to the Port of Shanghae, the duties to be charged on the article being made the subject of arrangement between the two Powers, &c.
The Prince has to observe that, with regard to the import of foreign salt, memoranda exchanged while the Treaty was under revision were very explicit as to the impossibility of removing the prohibition; for there is a certain amount of salt produced in China, which is divided into a fixed number of lots; and if in addition to this-quantity foreign salt were to be introduced, some of the native article must cease to circulate.
The amount receivable as duty on the foreign salt would not indemnify the losses of the salt gabelle.
Moreover, the (number of) licensed merchants, the number of licenses issued for each locality, and the quantity of salt saleable under these, is by law prescribed. If the native article ceases to circulate in any district, then the permits issued there are bought to no purpose, and the licenses are subjected to very serious losses.
There are hundreds of thousands of the population, too, who make their living out of the salt, being either engaged in its manufacture or in its transport, Simple- as the people of China are, these would certainly not submit to be, as the British Minister's despatch suggests, turned into cultivators of jute, abandoning a certain means of livelihood for wages in prospective, nor is there any quantity of vacant ground for them to till.
There is a Treaty provision probibiting [trade in] salt, and it will be inex- pedient to modify the regulations in this respect.
During the course of this present year, an Australian merchant was detected bringing a cargo of salt to Tien-tsin. This case was leniently dealt with, by the confiscation of the salt only; the merchant was not punished, as this was his first visit to China, and he was not familiar with the Treaty. But, for the future. clandestine trade in salt by any and every foreign merchant will be punished as the Treaty requires.
Foreign salt cannot be put on the same footing as foreign grain, as the despatch under acknowledgment suggests.
As in duty bound the Prince addresses his Excellency the British Minister. A necessary communication.
PRINTED AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE BY T. HARRISON.-1/1/70.
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