CO129-205 - Public Offices - 1882 — Page 293

13)

June 1858, and Rules 5 and 7 of the Tariff appended to that Treaty in November 1858, British imports, opium excepted, are entitled, when their Tariff duty is paid, to exemption from all further taxation until they pass a transit-duty barrier that had existed in 1843; and that on imports passing inland of any such barrier, it is at the option of the party interested either to clear the imports to a stated inland market by payment of an additional half-duty at the port of entry, in evidence of receipt of which payment the Port Customs should grant a certificate; or to pay whatever charges may be demanded by the Inland Custom-houses along the route. A similar option is secured to the exporter of native produce along the line between the inland market and the port of export.

The year 1843 is named as our point of departure, because, in the Separate Article signed that year, it is laid down that, whereas the rate of transit-duty to be levied on British imports had not been fixed in the manner contemplated in Article X of the Treaty of 1842, that is, by declaration of a certain percentage ad valorem, it was now, in this Separate Article, agreed that the amount to be levied on British merchandize as transit- duty was not to exceed the rates then in force, these being on a moderate scale; and that the ratifications of the Treaty of 1842 were now exchanged subject to this express stipulation.

This was signed on the 26th June, 1843. On the 8th October, 1843, Sir Henry Pottinger signed a Supplementary Treaty for the regulation of trade; but this was abrogated by Article I of Lord Elgin's Treaty of 1858, while the same Treaty renews and confirms the Treaty signed at Nanking in 1842. The Separate Article of 1843, as I have said, is expressly allowed to be of equal significance with the Treaty of 1842.

Lord Elgin's Treaty, signed in June 1858, had stipulated, in Article XXVIII, that within four months of its signature a declaration should be made of the amounts of transit duties leviable between the open ports of China and the inland markets along what may be termed the natural lines of trade; but the declaration not being ready, as from the state of the country it was scarcely possible it should be, it was agreed by Rule 7 of the Tariff appended to the Treaty that the amount of transit-dues legally leviable upon merchandize imported or exported by British subjects should be one-half of the Tariff duty leviable upon such merchandize.

While thus dealing with the transit-dues levied at barriers inland of the ports, Lord Elgin had reason to believe that he was dealing with the whole question of taxation over and above the Tariff duties, and this, at the time, was a legitimate assumption. Until Lord Elgin obtained it, in 1858, we had no right of access to the interior; and the pressure upon our trade, of which we had been for years complaining, was always ascribed by our native constituents to the increase of the dues or fees levied at the transit barriers. This increase, however, was the chief consequence of widespread troubles which had been for some ten years affecting the regular sources of the Imperial revenue, and these troubles had still years to run. The Empire, indeed, can hardly be said at this moment to have done with them. It has accordingly continued, as for some time yet it must continue, beholden to abnormal taxation in more than one form condemned by its traditions. The transit barriers, even of 1858, have long ceased to be the only stations at which this abnormal revenue is collected.

The weightiest and most unpopular of its imposts is the li-kin or li-chuan, of which Its foreigners frequently speak as a war-tax. This term incorrectly describes the tax. first object, years ago, no doubt, was the provision of funds for the suppression of rebellion; but the application of it varies. Its name would imply that the trader patriotically contributes 1 per mil. to the necessities of the State; but it is, in reality, a very comprehensive tax upon the trade of the provinces, the imposition of which by their Governments is authorized by the Central Government, but not regulated by it. In its estimates of supply, the Board of Revenue enters such or such sum as to be furnished out of the li-kin of such or such a province, from the total that it assumes will be collected therein; but the memorials of the Board to the Throne make it plain that Returns of the provincial collections under this head, although frequently applied for, are seldom sent up to it; and it is notorious that the subsidies estimated for, whether as derivable from li-kin or from other sources, are continually in arrear.

The native trader clamours as loudly against li-kin taxation as any foreign merchant; but, as I have said above, some time must elapse before the Chinese Government can afford to dispense with it.

Meanwhile, the rapacity of the officials employed to collect it has singularly interfered with our enjoyment of the conditions stipulated for by Lord Elgin. It must be added that from the first the Government, Central and Provincial, has been opposed to the satisfaction of those conditions. Transit passes, or certificates, whether on imports or exports, have been in some instances refused altogether. In some instances, when granted, they have

289