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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government
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CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[16210]
No. 1.
19995
[May 18.]
REC SECTION 6 JUN 07
(No. 161.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received May 18.)
Peking, April 2, 1907.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 60 of the 7th February, transmitting inquiries from the Board of Trade with regard to statements in the press that wharfage dues are to be charged on goods in all newly opened ports in China, and that certain alterations in the Chinese currency have been ordained.
As regards wharfage dues, I have the honour to refer you to Sir Ernest Satow's despatch No. 259 of the 20th July, 1905, and to Lord Lansdowne's reply No. 227 of the 7th October, 1905, respecting the levy of such dues at Santu-ao.
A similar levy has been provisionally introduced at Nanking, as reported in my despatch No. 4 of this year, while the Chinese authorities at Changsha bave imposed wharfage dues at that port without reference to the Consuls and Diplomatic Body.
His Majesty's Acting Consul at Changsha has consequently made representations to the Governor, and I am now awaiting the result of his action.
No wharfage dues are ccllected at Ch'inwangtao, but I am informed that it is intended to impose them at Nanning, to defray the cost of bunding works undertaken last year at a cost of 150,000 taels, and that these embankments have been already washed away.
This fact is enough to show the necessity of having some degree of Consular control over the expenditure of funds derived from the extra taxation of foreign trade. Provided that such control exists, the levy of these dues in newly opened ports does not appear to be more than a counterpart of similar charges imposed in most Treaty Ports for municipal purposes.
With regard to the question of currency reform, I was informed confidentially on the 26th March by one of the Ministers of the Wai-wu Pu that the tael coinage sanctioned by the Throne at the end of 1905 had been tried by Chang Chih-tung, Governor-General at Wuch'ang, but that it had proved a complete failure, owing to the clumsy size of the coin. The Tien-tsin Mint had been ordered to try it also, but they had demurred against making the experiment, and the instructions had not been carried out.
My informant stated that he was in favour of a dollar currency, and that he had recently been consulted by the newly appointed President of the Board of Finance, whom he advised to investigate the question very thoroughly before embarking on any fresh scheme. He added that the matter was receiving the closest attention of the Board of Finance, but in the absence of expert foreign advice it does not appear to me probable that the Board will succeed in evolving a solution of this difficult question.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN.
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