[ { "id": 209651, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 308, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "286\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe text of the first reads as follows: S.S. Kwangtung\n\nDear Sir,\n\nSwatow March 12th 1879\n\nYou will no doubt recollect that last year I had the pleasure of handing you copies of correspondence which had passed between H.M.'s Consul at Hoihow and my firm regarding the non-issue of transit passes, and at the same time I handed you copy of my petition to the Foreign Office.\n\nI now beg to hand you enclosed copy of the reply I have received from the Foreign Office, which I consider favourable in so much that I am assured that the important question of transit passes is under consideration, quite a different thing to the manner in which the Chinese Authorities have lately tried to patch up matters, by means of what they are pleased to style sau Lieu Tau or Transit passes, which permit the importation of new foreign goods and the exportation of Sugar and Cassia only.\n\nI sincerely hope that this matter will be well ventilated, and that the desirability of opening Hai An, as well as arrangements by which foreigners can extend trade to the neighbouring ports will be considered at the same time.\n\nI would beg your attention to the copies of correspondence above referred to, in which the subject is fully treated.\n\nThe present moment seems opportune for me to address you, as I see Sir Thos. Wade is in Hongkong.\n\nI am staying at Swatow for a short time and during my absence Mr. Jüdell represents our firm at Hoihow. If I can be of any service or furnish you with any further particulars I shall be glad to do so if you will address me here.\n\nThe Honorable W. Keswick\n\netc. etc.\n\nHong Kong\n\nI am\n\nDear Sir\n\nYours very truly Edward Herton\n\nof Herton Ebell & Co.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209652, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 309, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "Notes and QUERIES\n\n287\n\nIt is possible to trace the history of Mr. Herton's unhappy experience in the matter of transit passes in the consular correspondence from Kiungchow (H) or Hoihow (now Hai-k’ou), the port of Hainan Island facing the mainland. Briefly, the facts appear to be as follows. On 7th June 1877 the British firm of Herton, Ebell & Co. applied for transit passes to bring sugar from the interior. The reply from the Chinese customs authorities was that regulations for issue of transit passes had not yet been drawn up, so none could be issued. Edward Herton decided nevertheless to go and buy sugar and galangal (or galingale), for which he paid duty at Hai-Ant customs house. Further purchases were made in July and November 1877, on each occasion transit passes being applied for and refused, and duties at a higher rate than would have been due under the transit scheme were paid.\n\nOn 8th May 1878, Messrs. Herton, Ebell & Co. made a formal complaint to H.M. Consul at Kiungchow, claiming $20,000 against the Chinese Government for excess duty paid and losses incurred due to the non-issue of transit passes. The acting consul, James Scott, forwarded this to Hugh Fraser, H.M. Chargé d'Affaires in Peking on 30th May (F.O.228, v.612, p.273-4), with his comment that there was insufficient supporting evidence for such a large claim. Scott had previously submitted to Fraser on 8th May (F.O.228, v.612, p.267-71) a claim on behalf of Messrs. Herton, Ebell for excess duty amounting to $909.57, for which there was supporting documentation. What happened to this earlier claim is not clear, but Fraser forwarded the larger claim, which was in the form of a petition to the Secretary of State with supporting documents, to the Foreign Office on September 25 (F.O.228, v.603, p.262-3) with the comment:\n\n“British traders may perhaps not unjustly ask to be reimbursed the amount actually paid by them as Transit duty over and above that which they would have had to pay had passes been allowed them; but I am not prepared to support any such demand for an additional ‘indemnity’ as that which is made in Mr. Herton's letter to acting Vice Consul Scott of the 8th August last.”", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209653, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 310, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "288\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe reply from the Secretary of State, Lord Salisbury, was, “I approve your proceedings\" (F.O.228, v.605, p.237, dated Dec. 9, 1878).\n\nThe letter from the Foreign Office to Mr. Herton which he referred to in his letter to Mr. Keswick has not been traced in F.O.228. Perhaps he would have been less pleased with Foreign Office action if he had been aware of the above exchange.\n\nNothing further appears to have happened until 24th July 1879, when Sir Thomas Wade, who as H.M. Minister in Peking had meanwhile taken over from Chargé d'Affaires Fraser, wrote to Mr. Scott enclosing a memorandum on the Herton claim (F.O.228, v.630, p.101-2), and instructing him to inform the Superintendent of Customs at Kiungchow that the firm's claim for $909.57 was supported, and that the attention of the Chinese authorities in Canton had been directed to the case. It is not entirely clear whether this was before or after Scott's letter of 3rd July, enclosing one from Herton of 2nd July to Sir Thomas Wade (F.O.228, v.630, p.134-6), had reached Peking, though the latter are filed later. Herton claimed that, because of his \"unfair treatment at the hands of the Authorities\" his business had been \"entirely crippled\", and he was \"now in most pressing need of the money,\"\n\nIn accordance with Sir Thomas Wade's instructions, Scott wrote on 22nd August 1879 to the Customs, claiming $909.57, and rehearsing the whole affair on the lines of Wade's memorandum (F.O.228, v.630, p.165-7). No reply of substance was received until November, when, on the instructions of the Governor General of the two Kwangs, the old argument was reiterated, that no instructions for issue of transit passes were drawn up until January 1879 and as Herton had made his journeys in 1877 the duties paid were legally charged (F.O.228, v.630, p.174-5). In reply, Scott referred Acting Taotai Liu to the Treaty of Tientsin, art. XXVIII (see note 3 below), and pointed out that transit passes had been obtainable at Shanghai and other open ports for many years. He continued, \"Are the Canton Authorities then alone to be free to carry out their individual opinions under pretext of drawing up rules, refuse to issue passes and levy any dues they please in opposition to Treaty rights?\"\n\nIn", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209654, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 311, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n289\n\nThe conclusion of the matter is shown in F.O.228, v.654, p.146-152. In a letter to Sir Thomas Wade, written from Hong Kong on 28th Aug. 1880, Byron Brenan describes how he went to Canton \"in obedience to your instructions\", and finding the Governor General would not be available for two weeks owing to a death in the family, argued the case with the Superintendent of Customs. This did not go straightforwardly, and involved Brenan in a trip to Hoihow to obtain the receipts required as evidence that the sums had been paid as claimed. Eventually, however, he was able to obtain payment of $787.12 as the amount of tax in excess of what would have been due under the transit pass system, plus interest of $118.06, being 5% for three years, $905.18 in all. The last paper on the matter is a receipt for the refund, signed by Louis Jüdell, who is mentioned in Mr. Herton's letter to Mr. Keswick, in the capacity of his duly authorized attorney. It also appears from the covering letter of Acting Consul Scott that Mr. Ebell had severed his connection with the firm in August 1879.\n\nThe other letter to Mr. Keswick is less interesting, as it does not lead one into such a long paper chase (albeit on microfilm) through Foreign Office records. Nevertheless, it adds to the picture of problems faced by foreign merchants in China at that time. It reads as follows:\n\nHong Kong 12th March 1879\n\nDear Mr. Keswick,\n\nIn compliance with your request that I should give you a statement of the position of the Transit Pass Question at Pakhoi when I was at that port a month ago I beg to submit the following remarks.\n\nI was informed that a proclamation was to be issued on the day I left the 21st Feb. authorizing the issue of passes for cloth, specifying linen and camlets, but the Commissioner stated that the word cloth would be construed liberally as to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209657, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 314, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "292\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe difficulty dragged on into the following year, as we know from the two letters dated 12th March 1879 which prompted this study. In his intelligence report dated 2nd July 1879, Consul Stronach stated, \"I have already reported the refusal of Transit Passes by the Governor of Kwangsi: a rumour has reached this that he has been superseded\" (F.O.228, v.631, p.131). In his next quarterly report, however, he was able to say \"The difficulties in the issue of Transit Passes made by the Governor of Kwangsi have been surmounted, and the actual issue of one has taken place to cover the Cassia Lignea contracted for by Mr. Welsh. The bark is expected shortly.\" He goes on, \"An opening has at last been made of trade with Hongkong, by a small Steamer, the 'Hainan', under the American flag, and Mr. Herton, of Herton, Ebell & Co., a part owner, proposes to settle here and push the venture.\" (F.O.228, v.631, p.158). The main owners of the Hainan were Russell & Co.\n\nThis, however, is not quite the end of the matter. In his Trade Report for 1879, Thomas Piry, Customs Assistant-in-Charge at Pakhoi, reports as follows:\n\n\"The attention of merchants was a little excited in the beginning of the year by the information they received of the issue of Transit Passes. Some determined to try them for the conveyance of Cassia Lignea to this port, an article hitherto prohibited on its market. A contract was in consequence passed with a Foreign merchant. On further consideration, however, the Foreigner backed out, somewhat disgracefully, and left the port. This regrettable affair, enough by itself to ruin the Foreign name in the new place, was fortunately remedied by the kind agency of a Foreign firm, to which not a little credit is due for the action. The contract was confirmed by them, a Pass immediately taken, and the Cassia Lignea was satisfactorily brought down from Kwangsi to Pakhoi. Hence, firstly, the coming of the Hainan to fetch this Cassia.\"\n\nIt seems that Welsh lived up to his name, and perhaps he was the former hotel keeper in Canton who had come to Pakhoi without any definite plans: this would also account for the omission of his name from the 1884 China coast directory.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209658, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 315, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n293 \n\nThe final happy twist to this story is that the Foreign firm which took over Welsh's contract for Cassia, thus restoring the good name of the foreigners, was almost certainly Herton's. Earlier in Piry's report he wrote: \"Messrs. RUSSELL & CO's steamer Hainan will be remembered here as having proved the means of breaking the ice in Pakhoi. She made her first appearance here on the 28th of September, with a Foreign merchant on board\". As we have seen above, the Hainan came to Pakhoi especially to fetch the consignment of Cassia, and the Foreign merchant on board was equally probably Mr. Herton, perhaps come to take up residence as indicated by Stronach.\n\nWhat use, if any, William Keswick made of the two letters has not been ascertained. It is of interest, however, to note that soon after Russell's Hainan inaugurated the Hong Kong - Pakhoi run, Jardine, Matheson's Conquest began to include Pakhoi on her Hong Kong -- Haiphong route.\n\nH. A. RYDINGS \n\nNOTES \n\nThe large collection of China Maritime Customs publications in the Library of the University of Hong Kong were donated by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce in 1937. William Keswick was at one time Chairman of the Chamber. When the letters were found in the 1879 volume it was unfortunately not noticed between which pages they had been left, but it is probable that it was at the beginning of the report from Pakhoi.\n\n* Contained in Great Britain, Foreign Office, Embassy and consular archives: China: correspondence (F.O.228), now in the Public Record Office, London: microfilm in the University of Hong Kong Library. Correspondence on the Herton claim is in vols. 612, 630 and 654.\n\n4.\n\nTransit passes were instituted under the Treaty of Tientsin, 1858, in Article XXVIII of which it is stated:\n\n\"It shall be at the option of any British subject, desiring to convey produce purchased inland to a port, or to convey imports from a port to an inland market, to clear his goods of all transit duties, by payment of a single charge. The amount of this charge shall be leviable on exports at the first barrier they may have to pass, or, on imports, at the port at which they are landed; and on payment thereof, a certificate shall be issued, which shall exempt the goods from all further inland charges whatsoever.\"\n\n(Hertslet's Treaties, &c., between Great Britain and China, London, 1908, v.1, p. 27-8).\n\nHai-An (M) is the port on the mainland opposite to Kiungchow,\n\nPage 315\n\nPage 316", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213242, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "43\n\n1863. By the year 1867 he was in partnership with N.G. Peter. Mr. Peter served as Vice-consul for France at Macao, but left when he retired from the firm in 1871 (Macau Boletim 1 July 1871). Mr. Ebell in 1877 transferred his business at Macao to C. Milish and joined the firm of Edward Herton of Swatow under the style Herton, Ebell and Co. At the same time the firm opened an office at Haiphong in Tonquin (DP 16 Jan, 8 Oct. 1877).\n\nKirchner, Boger and Co.\n\nJohn Alhed Kirchner, an assistant in Siemssen and Co., and Hemrich Boger, an assistant in Hesse, Ebelts and Co., entered into a partnership in 1866 to conduct business as merchants and commission agents under the name of Kirchner, Boger and Co. (GG 7 July 1866). They closed down in 1874 – Mr. Boger died about the year 1905 (PRO Hong Kong, Probate file 18/1905/1727 jacket for will of Heinrich Boger, but there is no document in the jacket).\n\nFirms established after 1880\n\nThere was a significant increase of German firms in Hong Kong during the 1860s. Partially this is attributable to the necessity of firms leaving Canton during the Second Opium War and relocating in Hong Kong and to a lesser extent in Macao. When foreigners could return to Canton not all firms which had been operating there chose to do so. Others did but retained their office in Hong Kong.\n\nI have found no records of the establishment of a German firm in Hong Kong in the 1870s. Bornemann and Co. opened an office in Hong Kong in 1888. The founder was Fred Bornemann. In 1914 the partners were Carl Brending and Sohn, Soltau, Germany, H. Schumacher, Shanghai and G. Binder. Gustav Wilhelm Binder began his business career in Hong Kong in 1897 as a clerk in Carlowitz and Co. The firm returned to Hong Kong after the Second World War. In 1929 the principals were Sum Pak-ming, F. Ordepp and H.A. Westphal.\n\nJebsen and Co., according to the list of companies in liquidation after 1914, was established in 1894. At the time of liquidation the partners were J. and H. Jebsen. Jacob Friedrich Christian Jebsen appears on the Hong Kong Jury lists from 1897 to 1901. Christian Witzke and Heinrich...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 } ]