118 



CHINA. 



free of export or coast-trade duty and surtax and 

 consumption duty. The same conditions apply 

 to all other goods of foreign type made by ma- 

 chinery in China, except that the products of 

 Government ironworks, arsenals, dockyards, etc., 

 are exempt from all taxation. Members of the 

 foreign staff of the imperial Maritime Customs, 

 to be appointed by the viceroys or governors in 

 consultation with* the Inspector-General of Cus- 

 toms, will have a general supervision over native 

 customs, the consumption tax, and salt and na- 

 tive opium taxes. Illegalities complained of will 

 be investigated by a Chinese official in conjunc- 

 tion with an officer of the foreign Government 

 concerned and an officer of the Maritime Cus- 

 toms; and if the complaint is found to be well 

 founded compensation will be paid through the 

 imperial .Maritime Customs from the surtax 

 funds and the high provincial officials will be 

 held responsible for the punishment and dis- 

 missal of the officer guilty of the illegal action. 

 The Chinese Government promised tp open to 

 foreign trade the following new treaty ports: 

 Changsha in Hunan, Wanhsien in Szechuen, 

 Nganking in Anhui, and Waichau and. Kongmun 

 in Kuangtung. After the edict is issued abol- 

 ishing likin, likin barriers, and all descriptions of 

 internal taxation on goods, any official disregard- 

 ing the letter or the spirit of the injunction shall 

 be severely punished and removed from his post, 

 and the high provincial authorities will be held 

 responsible that this is done. The surtax on im- 

 ports and exports and the salt tax substituted 

 for the salt likin will be divided between the 

 provincial viceroys and governors and the 

 Maritime Customs in such proportion for each 

 viceroy or governor as may be arranged be- 

 tween him and the Board of Revenue. The 

 surtaxes shall not be pledged as security for 

 new foreign loans or for existing liabilities of 

 China, but the interest and sinking-fund of the 

 loan of 1898 for which the likin and salt likin 

 were pledged are to be set aside out of the pro- 

 ceeds of the surtaxes on imports and exports and 

 the new salt tax. In the ninth article of the 

 treaty China agrees to recast mining regulations 

 in such manner as to offer no impediment to 

 the attraction of foreign capital. The tenth arti- 

 cle contains regulations for the navigation of 

 inland waters, which is made for the first time a 

 treaty right, providing facilities for shipowners 

 to build or lease wharves and warehouses. The 

 eleventh article restricts the importation of mor- 

 phia. In the twelfth article Great Britain en- 

 gages herself to relinquish extraterritorial rights 

 as soon as the reform of the Chinese judicial 

 system and the establishment of an effective ad- 

 ministration shall warrant her in so doing. In 

 the thirteenth and last article Great Britain 

 agrees to take part in a joint commission repre- 

 senting China and the treaty powers interested 

 with the object of investigating the missionary 

 question and devising means of securing peace- 

 ful relations between the Christian converts and 

 the rest of the population of China. The treaty 

 was signed by the British and Chinese plenipo- 

 tentiaries on Sept. 7. It was subject to the ac- 

 ceptance of its conditions by all the powers en- 

 titled to most favored-nation treatment and to 

 their making their assent neither directly nor 

 indirectly dependent on the granting by 'China 

 any political concession or of an exclusive com- 

 mercial concession. If all the treaty powers ac- 

 cept the treaty all likin barriers 'shall be re- 

 moved on Jan. 1, 1904, and all officials employed 

 in the collection of taxes and dues prohibited 

 by the treaty shall be removed from their posts. 



Should the powers not agree before that date 

 the treaty will go into force as soon as they have 

 accepted its engagements. The new duties on 

 imports, although nominally 12 per cent., actu- 

 ally amount to between 10 and 11 per cent, on 

 the system of valuation in force. 



Great Britain and Japan receded from their 

 determination not to join the other powers in a 

 pro rata reduction of the indemnity claims to 

 bring the total sum down to the stipulated 450.- 

 000,000 taels when the United States offered to 

 abate its claim independently. When silver fell 

 20 per cent, below the exchange rate at which 

 the indemnity was reckoned the Chinese Govern- 

 ment claimed that the payments should be made 

 in silver. The fall in silver already added 90,000.- 

 000 taels to the indemnity debt and 3,000,000 

 taels to the annual interest, and if China con- 

 tinued to sell silver for gold to meet the pay- 

 ments the rate would continue to fall, as there 

 was little demand for silver outside of China. 

 The Chinese Government proposed to collect the 

 customs duties in gold at the exchange fixed by 

 the treaty. The representatives of the powers 

 peremptorily refused to allow this course. The 

 Chinese then declared that they would pay in 

 silver, and the July payment was tendered at 

 the current rate of exchange. The commissioners 

 refused to accept this amount. The Government 

 then acknowledged that it was a gold debt and 

 appealed to the powers to relieve it from condi- 

 tions that would soon render it impossible to 

 pay the interest or principal of the indemnity. 

 The United States Government took the ground 

 that the indemnity, expressed in taels, the only 

 money available in China, was in equity a sil- 

 ver debt, intended to be equivalent to a gold 

 debt at the rate stated in the protocol without 

 regard to the fluctuations of silver. The Ameri- 

 can minister notified China that his Government 

 was willing to accept payment of its part of the 

 indemnity at the current rate of exchange. Eng- 

 land then proposed that China should be per- 

 mitted to pay the indemnity in silver until 1910. 

 After an acknowledgment by the Chinese Gov- 

 ernment that it had agreed in the treaty to pay 

 in gold the other powers agreed to the English 

 proposal. 



The native customs were handed over to the 

 Maritime Customs department according to the 

 protocol, but not without considerable resistance 

 and delay in many places. In Canton the Man- 

 chu collector of native customs was sustained 

 in his reluctance to resign a lucrative post by 

 the Imperial Government, which yielded grudg- 

 ingly at last to the demands of the British min- 

 ister. The powers have regarded with jealon-y 

 the imperial Maritime Customs since the estab- 

 lishment of this foreign branch of the Chinoe 

 Government on account of the peculiar control 

 over the department by Great Britain. By ar- 

 rangement between Great Britain and China the 

 head of the Maritime Customs must be of Brit- 

 ish nationality so long as British commerce in 

 China exceeds that of any other nation. The 

 Maritime Customs in 1902 organized an imperial 

 postal service and carried letters to all parts 

 of China for the lowest rates in the world, only 

 3 cent per half-ounce. The German, French. 

 and Japanese postal agencies reduced their rates, 

 but were unable, to compete. Registered letter- 

 are sent for 5 cents Mexican by the imperial 

 post-office, and postal and money-order offices 

 are established in all the large towns and pro- 

 vincial capitals. Chang-Chih-Tung and other 

 viceroys interposed obstacles at first to the ex- 

 tension of the post-offices into their provinces, 



