291
134
such protection as that provided by the Agreement, the li-kin revenue must sustain a serious loss.
Its fears are not without foundation. The further the boundary of the port-area is made to recede the greater, of course, the chance of such loss. Shortly after my departure from Peking, the foreign Ministers there resident called upon the Chinese Government to withdraw its li-kin collectorates from the Settlements at Shanghae, not as a concession referable to my Agreement of the limitation of the port-area recommended in which, as I have stated, they disapproved, but in part satisfaction of the Treaty right of far older date by which foreign importe ought to be exempted, while between port and inland barrier, from all taxation in excess of Tariff. The Settlements of Shanghae, which cover a few miles of ground, are occupied in great part by a Chinese population of brokers and shop- keepers. These, of course, profited by the removal of the li-kin collectorates, and the Chinese of the same class inhabiting the city and suburbs of Shanghae let the authorities understand that, unless their burdens were similarly lightened, they should transfer their establishments to the foreign quarter. The authorities gave way, and for more than a twelvemonth I have reason to believe that no li-kin has been levied in Shanghae or its immediate vicinity, at least, not by collectorates of the old stamp. Some portion of it will be doubtless recouped from the trading guilds under another form or title of taxation.
The loss in opiam revenue, I imagine, must be considerable, and if the Government. of India be still averse to the intervention of the foreign Inspectorate in the collection of li-kin, I venture to hope that it will not be equally opposed to a ecrtain increase of the Tariff duty, the hi-kin tax being left as formerly, though at a comparative disadvantage, to take care of itself.
It has been urged that it is in violation of international practice to pledge a Govern- ment, as I desired to pledge mine, in a diplomatic instrument, to sanction of the levy of a tax in the nature of a municipal or inland due in addition to a Treaty import duty, except as a commutation of such due, and with the view to placing the amount, defined and limited, under an international guarantee; further, that it is a mere form to maintain the Treaty limitation of the import duty, while, at the same moment, and at the same spot, the authorities are at liberty to levy what they like under the naine of li-kin.
The authorities have, in reality, been free to levy what they pleased in addition to the Tariff duty ever since the Tariff came into operation in 1860, and they have taken advan- tage of their right, but, as I believe, solely with reference to the circumstances of the different ports of entry. It was this consideration that influenced me when I recommended that, if the corrupt and troublesome native Executive heretofore charged with the levy of the li-kin were to be stripped of their office, that tax, which the Chinese Government has the fullest right to levy, should be collected by the foreign establishment which has the exclu- sive collection of duties on foreign trade in its hands. I did not believe that the sale of Indian opium would be in any degree diminished in China by the measure, and this for two sufficient reasons, firstly, that Indian opium is a requirement of the Chinese people, and secondly, that the revenue derivable from it is sorely needed by the Chinese Government.
As to the suppression of opium-smoking upon moral grounds, I cannot think that for years it will be attempted; the habit is become too general. Native opium is produced in every part of the Empire that will bear the poppy, notably in the provinces of Yün Nan, Ssu Ch'uan, Kan Su, and Shen Si. In these and the districts adjoining them I doubt that Indian opium is consumed at all. In Manchuria the native opium competes with the Indian, and, as I have before intimated, it may one day come to pass that improvement in the cultivation of the poppy, and preparation of the drug, will place the foreign import at a disadvantage. But that day is not, in my opinion, near at hand; and meanwhile, so far as the Chinese Government is concerned, it is certainly discovering no tendency to encourage the development of a native opium trade; on the reverse, it formally protests against cultivation of the poppy, and although with some inconsistency the authorities levy li-lein upon
native opium, its production is none the less interdicted.
I have before me two letters written last August by a Chinese high in office, who is very anxious that the Chefoo Agreement should be ratified, and on this account doubtless what falls from him must be taken cum grano. Still, his remarks upon the native opium question are not undeserving of attention.
He is writing especially to deprecate any suspicion on our part that his own Govern- ment desires to foster the production of native opium in order to drive ours out of the market.
All evidence, he contends, points the other way. An Imperial Decree has recently been issued enjoining the Provincial Governments to prohibit the cultivation of the poppy
135
within their respective jurisdictions. Whether success has attended this effort of the Central Government or not, he urges, it suffices to show the importance it attaches to the discontinuance of poppy cultivation; and this for the two-fold reason that, while addicted- ness to the use of opium demoralizes and ruins the people, cultivation of the poppy impoverishes the soil, and renders it unavailable for production of the necessaries of life. It has been brought to the notice of the Government that the increasing cultivation of opium had so interfered with the raising of cereals as in many places to have caused or aggravated the recent famine. Land formerly devoted to food-stuffs had been given up to the poppy. In years of plenty, consequently, the grain produced in the districts referred to was insufficient for the wants of the population, while in years of dearth the people were reduced to starvation, or had to emigrate as paupers.
“
As to our alarm lest home-grown should compete with Indian opium, there can be no prospect, he maintains, that the former will displace the latter. It is notorious that the poppy grown in China cannot produce good opium. Indeed, the quality of the Chinese product is so inferior that it is used only by those who would be unable to buy the more expensive Indian commodity, even were it imported duty-free, while the wealthier classes regard it as vulgar to partake of any other opium than Indian."
There may be here some slight exaggeration. It is beyond doubt, at the same time, that the Indian opium is considered the more fashionable, as well as the fuller flavoured of the two. In Peking society, at least among the younger men who have time to idle together, it is become as much the usage to offer a visitor a pipe of opium, as with us to invite him to smoke cigars or cigarettes; and it would certainly not be considered good style to give him any but the foreign drug,
The letter goes on to affirm that the Chinese Government has no thought whatever of availing itself of the Chefoo Agreement to raise the li-kin on Indian opium to a pro- hibitory rate. It would be glad, he writes, to sec its importation stopped altogether, were this possible, which the writer knows it is not. The Government is set upon the prohibi- tion of opium cultivation at home; but this he knows can only be effected gradually. The Chinese Government, he adds, levy li-kin on native opium, as well as on Indian opium, and at the same rate. The last assertion I take leave to doubt.
Finally, he declares that the sole object of the proposed simultaneous collection of li-kin and Tariff duty is the prevention of smuggling; the security, that is to say, of the revenue to which the Government is entitled when the drug passes out of foreign hands.
I believe that there is much truth in this last statement. The Government is sorely in want of money; and although it is frequently chargeable in its local finance with suicidal eagerness to secure the golden egg, it must be admitted to have shown, on the whole, an intelligent tenderness in its treatment of opium l-kin.
I give below a list of the open ports at which I have been enabled to ascertain, approximately, the rates of li-kin levied per picul on foreign opium. Of the li-kin on native opium I know nothing to be relied on. The tael is an ounce of silver estimated by the foreign Inspectorate as equivalent to 6s. sterling:-
King-chow (Ini-nan)
Swatow Amoy
Foo-chow
Ningpo
Wênebow
Shanghae
Chin-kiang
Chefoo
Tien-tein
New-chwang Hankow
Taels.
23.0
21.5
84.6
86
32'0
40.0
40·0
16)
32.0
18.0
18.0
30.0
This list does not include the new ports of I-chang, Wu-hu, and Pak-hoi. The last is but a branch of Kiung-chow, and the rate of li-kin is probably the same at both ports. At Canton, Tam-sui, and Ta-kow, which do not either appear in the list, we may be sure that the li-kin is not below 20 taels per picul. At Canton it is certain to be much bigher.
I have before me the Returns of Trade at the Treaty ports for the year 1877, prepared under the direction of Mr. Hart, Inspector-General of the Maritime Customs, and chief of the foreign service, known as the Customs' Inspectorate, which are thoroughly trust- worthy. I append the reprint of a Table extracted from p. 13 of this Return, showing the importation of opium into the open ports from 1870 to 1877 inclusive; and according to the data contained in this, I make out that of the 12,000,000 taels collected on the
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