137
292
136
foreign import trade in 1877, the opium yielded upwards of 2,000,000 taels in Tariff duties; while, according to the rough li-kin Table above given, there must have been collected on the year's import at least some 3,500,000 taels. This last is my estimate.
It will strike any one that the entry of opium at Canton is inconceivably small; but this is due to the near neighbourhood of Hong Kong, from which, as also along the coast cast and west of the Colony, the opium is carried to Canton in native junks. The import into Hong Kong in 1877, not accounted for at the ports, was some 25,000 piculs, of which a small quantity would be consumed on the island and a small quantity transhipped to California. The balance must have found its way into China. Allowing that 20,000 piculs were so carried in junks, this quantity, had it passed through the open ports, would have paid 600,000 taels Tariff duty, and scarcely a less sum in li-kin. It does not follow that it paid nothing. It no doubt paid li-kin and irregular fees. But the revenue due on it was, without doubt, in no small part evaded; and that the Hoppo, or Chinese Superin- tendent of Customs, should, most probably from corrupt motives, have declined the assistance of the foreign Inspectorate in collecting it, may be held an argument against my position that the Government's carefulness of its opium revenue is to be counted on. A Chinese authority will always he jealous of the apparent intervention of a foreigner between him and his nationals; but, besides this, the appointment of the Hoppo of Canton is peculiar. He is always a member of the Imperial Household. He is sent to make his own fortune, but on the understanding that he is to supply many things that should be paid for out of the Privy Purse. It would scarcely be fair to argue from Canton to the other ports.
Of the slackness of the native authorities when left to themselves I take leave to give one other instance. At Peking, which is closed to foreign trade, there is a very heavy octroi. In 1876, according to Mr. Mongan, our Consul at Tien-tsin, there were forwarded thence to Peking some 2,300 piculs of opium: "Say that 500 piculs of this (a very liberal allowance) were smuggled into the city, there remain 1,800 piculs which should have paid octroi duty at the city gates. This duty last year (1876) was 38 taels per picul, and its amount therefore should have been 69,300 taels. But in the Peking Gazette' of the 6th October, 1876, it is officially reported that the duty collected on opium at the gates of Peking during the year ending 19th September, 1876, but amounted to 11,299-7 taels, leaving a balance of 37,000 taels unaccounted for, supposing the above estimate (Mr. Mongan's) to be correct."
I have been desirous of setting before your Excellency such a statement as will make plain not only the position of the opium trade in China, but my own difficulties in dealing with it. I write almost apologetically, because I am aware that in my action regarding it, it has been thought that I showed indifference to the duty of preserving intact to the Government of India a source of revenue of paramount importance. I have shown why I touched the opium question at all; that I could not have left the general taxation of our trade untouched, and that I could not approach this latter without at the same time con- sidering the protection of such lawful interests of the Chinese Government, as my exaction of what was due to our own trade must have more or less jeopardized. I did not conceive that the stricter collection of li-kin would jeopardize the trade in Indian opium, even if the rates of li-kin were to be considerably raised. Mr. Hart, a high authority, was of opinion that, were a uniform rate agreed to, our opium would bear a heavier li-kin than has ever been laid upon it except at Foochow and Amoy.
I fear that I cannot now avoid pressing the Government of India to assent to some arrangement by which some payment in addition to the present Tariff may be secured to the Chinese Customs before the opium passes into consumption. I had a conversation with the Minister Kuo Sung-t'ao the day before I left London, and he insisted much on the loss of revenue that must certainly ensue on the expulsion of the li-kin collectorates from the Settlements, or the expansion of the port-areas, if we at the same time refused to intrust the collection of the -kin to the foreign Inspectorate.
We cannot, I think, go back. We cannot say to the Chinese, "Take back the four ports of residence that you have opened, and the six places of call, and give us the port- area to which, under the Treaties, we were entitled; and take your li-kin, as before, off the opium as you may."
This would land us in our old difficulty of defining the port-area to which the Treaties entitle us, and which other Powers would certainly not consent to contract without a quid pro quo. I know of no quid pro quo worth the having except the extension of our trade by the opening of new ports; this being a gain, it may be remarked, not less to trade in opium than to other trade. The proposition to resume the status quo, although it may be legitimate in the coming negotiations to advance it hypothetically, could not be insisted on without unpleasant consequences. The Chinese would not fail to inpute
bad faith to us, and our trade would not improbably pay the penalty in one form of vexation or other.
I should be glad, therefore, to be authorized to adopt one or other of the following courses. The definition of a port-area at every open port being now to be determined by the Treaty Powers, I would propose that the amount of additional duty, whether levied as li-kin or otherwise, be greater or less according as the boundary of the area be nearer or further from the port custom-house. The larger the port-area, the larger the addition to Tariff duty to be conceded.
The li-kin tax, be it observed, is to be tolerated beyond the limits of the port-area, upon all imports not protected by transit duty certificate. Opium, by Treaty, cannot be so protected; but the larger the port-area, of course, the larger the local consumption and the retail trade; and the greater the difficulty of the li-kin collectorates in watching the drug through and out of the port-area. I believe that the trade would be most favoured by an agreement to concede such an amount of duty as would tempt the Chinese to keep their li-kin collectorates altogether out of the port-area, no matter what its extent ; but this would not be equally practicable at all the ports. At Canton, for instance, we could not expect it. The li-kin on native trade in such a city is too considerable to be foregone. The same may be said of one or two other large centres. At such places I should be for concession of the minimum rate of increase; certain that, both when in consumption and in transitu, the opium would speedily have to pay more than the first charge.
But if the principle be admitted that there is to be an addition recognized, and an addition differing according to circumstances, it will then have to be decided, whether that addition shall be made in the form of an increased Tariff duty, or in the form of li-kin.
Mr. Hart, whom I consulted before I left England, expressed an opinion that an increase of the Tariff duty would be preferable to the alternative measure, because if li-kin were collected by the Foreign Customs, it would be passed into the Imperial as distinguished from the Provincial Accounts; and although by sanction of the Board of Revenue, portions of the Foreign Customs duties are applied to the use of the provinces, the li-kin, as we know, is looked upon, in the provinces, rather as provincial revenue with which the chief of the jurisdiction deals more or less independently of the Board.
It may be objected that if we once assent to a higher Tariff duty than the present, we shall never get rid of it; while the li-kin, although the tax has probably a long lease of life, whenever it dies out on other trade, will not be continued on opium alone.
My belief is that, with the liberty reserved them by the Treaty of 1858 to tax Indian opium as they please, they are no more likely to leave it untaxed than we should be to leave foreign wines or other commodities which, though luxuries, have become essentials to us, he li-kin abolished or retained.
I should like to be left free by the Government of India to ascertain which of the two courses would be the more acceptable to the Chinese, and to be guided by the I have still a safeguard against arguments they may employ in favour of either. miscalculation in the proviso that whatever may now be agreed to is to be regarded as un experiment only; the success of the experiment being at the same time guaranteed by the engagement that, if good faith is kept, the revision of our Treaty now due shall be postponed for five years.
There is one argument in favour of the li-kin payment, namely, that the importer of opium will not, as a first charge, be more heavily taxed than at present. Another is that as it involves no alteration in the text of the Treaties, it will hardly be possible for any Treaty Power to object to it.
There remains only to be considered the additional amount of duty which we are prepared to agree shall be paid if the one course is adopted, or the amount of li-kin to be levied by the Foreign Inspectorate, if the other be approved.
I do not forget that whichever course be followed, the opium will be farther taxed inland, it may be very near the port. But I rely once more upon the self-restraint of the Chinese Government where its opium revenue is concerned. If the dread of the smuggler be a check upon its tendency to immoderate taxation, the refusal of the Canton Super- intendent to ally himself with his foreign coadjutors will preserve to the Hong Kong junk trade much of its old opportunity. Even without this door open, I believe it impossible for the time being to extinguish the trade. Accepting, therefore, scarcely half of Mr. Hart's estimate of what the trade will bear, I should not be afraid to allow an additional Tariff or li-kin tax of from 20 to 40 taels per picul; and if authorized to set the concession, as above suggested, against extension of the port-area, I should apportion my amounts according to the principle earlier indicated. The larger the port-area, the better for all trade, the opium trade included. Its definition, so long resisted, will relieve
2 N [1703]
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.