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THE RISE IN HE LUPEE AND·
THE CHINA TLADE.
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Government and people willingness to consider asked that, if the principle the tariff were conceded, the duty should cover every charge and really free the goods from all her impositions until they reached the consumers. 7 As Ir has declared that this cannot and that China wants increased duties in addition to lekin, it is highly improbable, that the king Government will augment its revenue from this source. Yet money is urgently wanted, and the opening of the new Treaty ports of Hangchow, Soochow Shasi, and Chungking will hardly suffice to pro the funds required for the re tation of the navy, the reorganisation of the army, the improvement of the arma ment of existing fortifications, and for pay- ment of interest on loans contracted. It is possible that the Tsung-li-Yamen n purposely be adopting a policy of
of driff m order that if as is not improbable, the interest on loans falls into arrear, the Treaty Powers may then be compelled to some proposals for the purpose, of curing payment. They have not forgotten the manner in which Great Britain on a former occasion came to the rescue and by... creation of the Imperial Maritime Customs showed China an easy way out of a financial difficulty and at the same time invented magnificent machine for the collection of revenue. Or, it may be, in its usual casual way, the Tsung-li Yamen decided that sufficient to the day was the evil thereof, and resolved to let matters take their course. It is, as our Shanghai morning contemporary suggests, quite in accordance with probas bility that the proposals made by L HUNG-CHANG in Europe for an increase of the tariff were his own private un- authorised suggestion. However that may be, it is very evident that the question of the revision of the tariff had in no way embar- rassed the official in charge of the negotia- tions with Japan.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
if the existing taxation in China were largely reduced or altogether removed the trade might once more enter on a period of The recent marked rise in the sterling expansion. This would certainly be the case value of the rupee is calculated to have an if in addition to reduced taxation improved important influence on the cotton industry methods of production and manufacture were at Shanghai and also, possibly, on the China adopted; and already a small commence- tea trade. Messrs. NOEL, MURRAY & Co., | ment has been made in that direction in the in their piece goods trade report dated Foochow tea district. The Indian currency Shanghai, 12th November, say :-"The legislation has given China a great advan- “Indian yarn trade has received a severe tage in competition with India if she chooses "shock during the week owing to the to avail herself of it. As to the yarn trade, "disastrous decline in exchange, the rate it was foreseen from the first that the on Bombay being quoted to-day at the rise in the value of the rupee would "hitherto unknown figure of 224. This act as a bounty on competing manufactures "decline not only puts all chance of forward in the Far East and the present situation is "business at prescut prices out of the ques- therefore not unexpected except in so far "tion, but will give serious trouble to the as the success of the currency experiment "buyers who have, as is customary now, in India has been greater and more rapid secured exchange against future contracts. than was looked for. Whatever disadvan- "Already many of the leading importerstages the closing of the mints might bring "have closed their books and decline to upon trade, they were considered to be a "listen to any offers until matters in some lesser evil than the increased taxation way or another adjust themselves. In the which a cheap rupee would have neces- "meantime this movement of exchange is sitated, and, rightly or wrongly, the mo- "attracting attention to the local cotton mentous step was taken. Few, however, spinning mills, which are rapidly approach- | could have anticipated that the rise in the "ing completion." Messrs. WELCH, LEWIS, rupee would be so rapid as has actually & Co., in their Shanghai tea report of the same been the case. The rate of exchange date, say
The Shanghai General Cham- having now reached 1s. 34d. India seems "ber of Commerce is inviting some of its within measurable distance of a gold members to sit on special committees to standard. On this point it may be report on the incidence of taxation of interesting to reproduce the remarks imports and exports. S far as tea is made by Sir DAVID BARBOUR when concerned it appears to us that a reform introducing the Currency Bill in the "in preparing the leaf for foreign use is Imperial Legislative Council:-" Arrage- quite as essential as the abolition of duty ments for the receipt of gold at the mints and lekin. The Inilian Government by "at the rate of sixteen pence the rupee will. "artificially raising the value of the "be made by executive order, and so will rupee is indirectly taxing tea severely. At arrangements for the receipt of sovereigns "to-day's rate, 1s. 31d, the exchange value "in payment of sums due to the Govern- "of the rupee is about 30 per cent, over the ment, at the rate of fifteen rupees for the cost of the silver it contains, whilst the sovereign. Gold coins will not, for the exchange value of the tael here is slightly present, be made legal tender, and con- "below the parity of silver; a burden "sequently nobody will be compelled to equal to an ad valorem duty of over 40 "receive them instead of silver rupees, un- per cent, is thus laid on all ters bought in "less he is willing to do so. The Government Calcutta and Colonoo and China ten "rave also abandoned their intention to does not bear any greater burden than its "take power to declare sovereigns legal Indian and Ceylon competitors. As loug
"tender at any rate not exceeding eighteen- this continues we must look for some pence per rupee. The ratio of exchange other reason than taxation to account for between gold and the silver rupee has not "the decline of consumption of China tea been finally settled. Making gold legal in England. The abolition of all taxation tender, and the rate of exchange as coin- on tea in China would be an eminently "pared with the rupee at which gold shall desirable thing for the trade, but freedom be made legal tender, are matters which "from taxation will not bring back British "must be settled hereafter by legislative taste to China congbus, and it is only by enactment, and in the light of future adopting modern methods of curing the experience." leaf that this end may be gained. Russian taste is following the English, "and China tea maile after Ceylon me- "thods would now regain favour." Messrs. WELCH, LEWIS & Co.'s arguments as to the cause of the decline in the demand for China tea are not very convincing, for the burden imposed upon Indian and Ceylon tea by the artificial rising of the value of the rupee is a matter of yesterday, and it was while no such burded existed that these teas ousted the China product from the English market. No doubt the question of taste has a good deal to do with the matter, but it is hardly credible that if India and China tea had all along been on the same footing us re- gards taxation the Indian article would have ousted its rival so easily as when the latter was handicapped with taxation to the extent of thirty-five or forty per cent. As the artificial raising of the value of the rupee tends to equalise matters as regards the charges to be borne by the products of the two countries it would seem to follow that China's hold on what still remains to her of the tea trade will be pro- portionately strengthened thereby and that
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THE TREATY BETWEEN CHINA AND JAPAN,
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The salient point of the Treaty so far as it affects the contracting parties is Article III., which confirms the exterritorial rights of Japan in China, but denies those same rights in Japan to China. This was of course a foregone conclusion; one of the points won by the conqueror in the recent campaign. Japan never had any intention of allowing of ex to China a continuance of the right of traterritoriality, but before the war it would have been a matter of some difficulty to open negotiations on the one-sided basis which became possible after the succession of victories which compelled the Peking Gov- ernment to sue for peace. By the terms of Articles XI. and XII., payment of a transit be-duty equal to half the import or export duty, as the case may be, or equivalent to two and a-half per cent. ad valorem on duty free articles, is to free goods taken into the interior or produce purchased there fo export by Japanese subjects, of all inland taxes whatsoever. This is a reproduction, in somewhat more difinite form, of the stipulations of Article XXVIII of the Treaty of Tientsin, but no doubt it wi as readily evaded by the Chinese - The Treaty also provides for the of Bonded Warehouses at the ports. The regulations as to Tonnage Dues the are practically the same as those Tientsin Treaty No provision is made for the taxation of Japanese manufactures ata the Treaty ports, from which we conclude the clause in the Shimonosel Treaty with reference to this mains in force. No doubt the Jap are satisfied with that insti ||far as this matter is concerned. They
The text of the Commercial Treaty tween China and Japan, reproduced in our columns on the 9th inst., contains few clauses of special interest. The most re- markable point in it, perhaps, is the con- firmation of the existing tariff for the next teu years, and there is no provision for any revision of the tariff for that term. His Excellency CHANG YIN-HUAN who ne gotiated the agreement, would appear either to have been ignorant of the design of Li Hoso-CHANG to attempt to secure the increase of the ad valorem duties on imports, or to have determined to ignore them in the treaty with Japan. Possibly CHANG felt less sanguine than LI on the subject and did not care to be bothered with the considera- tion of a question which he may have deemed very problematical. LI HUNG CHANG did not find the demand meet with a very ready acquiescence in Europe. The principle was not rejected, but the details were somewhat involved. The British
hment
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