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JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
one hundred, in kind, on all the wood felled; and 
this tax they had farther to transport from the 
forest to the Irawadi, and from thence to the 
market in Rangoon, at their own cost. The royal 
duty upon such timber was five in one hundred, 
also levied in kind. 
With the few exceptions which I have already 
mentioned, there exist no transit duties, and there 
are no dues levied either in fairs or in markets. 
This may be considered rather a singular circum¬ 
stance in a country where industry is in other re¬ 
spects so overloaded and oppressed. 
As to custom-house duties, those on foreign 
imports are ten in one hundred; and upon ex¬ 
ports, five, paid to the King; with two in one 
hundred upon the former, and one in one hundred 
on the latter, for the local officers. Native and 
foreign vessels of every description, carrying on 
the external trade, paid these duties; but Euro¬ 
pean and other square-rigged vessels were liable 
to a long list of charges besides. Until within a 
very few years previous to the war, this class of 
vessels were made to unship their rudders and 
land their guns. After a long struggle, they were 
exonerated from unshipping their rudders upon 
paying a douceur of thirty-two ticals to the local 
authorities. The other charges and exactions were 
numerous. The following is a specimen taken 
from those actually levied on a vessel of 450 tons 
burthen ; viz. permission to land the cargo, four 
