CO129-224 - Foreign Office - 1885 — Page 448

118

exports intended for a foreign market come almost entirely from the Yu-lin and Nan-ning districts, more from Yü-lin than Nan-ning. The shipping trade is monopolized by the Macao Guild, who run the three little steamers (two of which are German) which ply between this, Hoihow, Maceo, and Hong Kong. Their expert cargo consists principally of445 ground-nut cake, liquid indigo, and sugar, all to be consumed by Chinese in the neigh- bourhood of Canton and Hong Kong. The trade is only enough to give a precarious living to one British merchant, and to a German, who has lately started in business. The native merchants are dealers on a small scale. The richer of them are agents for the members of the Macao Guild.

I cannot think that Her Majesty's Government would consider these meagre results sufficient to compensate the expense of establishing a Consulate, and stationing a man-of- war here from time to time, were it not that they look on Pakhoi as an outpost whence British trade may advance into the large and undeveloped districts of south-west China. In my Report on the trade of Pakhoi in 1884, I have fully detailed the obstacles, natural and artificial, against the proposed advance. These hindrances are capable of being diminished by the action of the authorities. The want of good water communication may be overcome by the construction of a railway or good macadamized roads, and the burden- some and unequal duties now in force may be changed for a light and equitable tariff, and the transit pass clauses of the Treaty of Tien-tsin may be carried out in an honest and liberal spirit. Until these things are done, Pakhoi cannot be a place of any importance, and if these are not only not done, but there is a port opened close by, whence communi- cation with Kuangsi and Yunnan may be had, and whence a railway will carry goods safely into the interior, at a moderate rate of freight, Pakhoi must either be content to remain at a level even lower than its present level, or it must make a start in rivalry.

The question of taxation is the most important point. The route on which dues are the lightest will infallibly carry away trade from the others. Kuei-lin, for instance, takes goods under transit pass from Hankow, though to reach the city on that route these goods have to traverse 2,000 miles more than they would have to go viâ Canton or Pakhoi, but the li-kin and barrier dues on the two latter roads stop the transit.

The duties to be levied on goods passing through Annam and imported or exported across the frontiers of Yunnan or Kuangsi are of course not yet announced, nor can I give those now in force on goods carried inland from Pakhoi with the accuracy that I could wish. Suffice it to say that after an import duty and li-kin of 14 per cent. ad valorem at Pakhoi, goods are liable to a fresh charge at every li-kin station and inland barrier passed in transitu.

To show the universality and the oppressiveness of these dues, I may state that when the inhabitants of Pakhoi fled out of the town to Lien-chou on the approach of the French blockading squadron, taking with them their goods and chattels, li-kin was charged on all their possessions by the Lieu-chou authorities. I have tried in vain to get an exhaustive list of all the stations, but neither the Custom-house officials nor the foreign merchants know all their names, and if the native merchants know, in spite of their professions of ignorance, they will not tell me. Their reticence is accounted for by the fact that carriers of goods try to slip round and evade these taxing places. Mr. Herton gives me the only trustworthy piece of intelligence that I can obtain. On a consignment of yarn, shirtings, and needles, value 770 dollars, sent to Yunnan Fu, he paid the following charges :-

Import and transit dues

Dues charged at Yunnan Fu

Coolie and boat-hire

Interest for five months

Total

Dol. c.

57 75

90 00

200 00

38 50

386 25

From li-kin dues being charged at Yünnan Fu alone, I have no doubt that the men in charge of the goods evaded every station en route.

Next comes the question of freight and charges. The expense of porterage and boat hire between this and Yunnan is, so the Chinese assure me, as much as 15 taels per picul, say 457. per ton dead weight. The amount paid by Mr. Herton goes to show that this is scarcely an exaggeration. The journey from Pakhoi to Yunnan Fu occupies forty-six days. The custom of the trade is to pay, not in cash, but in native opium, which is sold at Kao-Chow, whence the cash is at last remitted. Thus the Pakhoi merchant is kept out of his money for four or five months. Interest at the rate of 1 per cent, a month will cause a deduction of five per cent, from the profits. Add to these charges the heavy and uncertain dues, and the only conclusion to which a reasonable man can come is that o oute ever had a better chance of success than the projected one through Tonquin into

'