Am,jJa°nu'i^e.arm"  I  Camphor:  Growth  and  Manufacture.  39 
The  first  consignment  arrived  promptly  and  cleared  a  very  band- 
some  profit.  The  merchants  were  delighted,  but  their  pleasure  was 
short-lived,  inasmuch  as  the  new  Governor,  without  a  word  of  warn- 
ing, re-established  the  old  monopoly.  Notwithstanding  the  contracts 
then  pending  between  the  foreign  merchants  and  the  native  dealers, 
contracts  upon  which  large  sums  had  been  advanced,  the  internal 
revenue  and  custom  house  officers  seized  all  the  camphor  in  the 
market  or  in  transit,  permits  or  no  permits.  The  merchants  were 
thunderstruck  and  appealed  in  a  body  to  the  British  and  United 
States  Consular  representative  atTalwanfoo,  Hon.  Pelham  L.  Warren, 
a  brave  and  brainy  gentleman.  He  made  a  strong  fight  against  the 
outrage,  put  in  claims  for  heavy- damages,  carried  the  case  to  Peking, 
where  he  was  sustained  by  the  united  foreign  legations,  and  after- 
wards by  the  highest  authority  in  China,  the  Jsung-li-Yamen  or 
Imperial  Cabinet.  The  monopoly  was  expressly  abolished,  and 
the  claims  after  tedious  delay  and  litigation,  allowed  and  paid  in  full 
to  the  sufferers. 
Before  the  opportunity  thus  created  could  be  taken  advantage  of, 
the  local  administration  levied  a  special  tax  on  camphor  of  one  cent 
per  pound,  exclusive  of  the  internal  revenue  and  export  duty.  It 
was  done  under  the  pretext  of  a  "  garrison  tax,"  the  Government 
claiming  there  was  danger  of  an  uprising  of  the  savages  in  the 
interior  of  Formosa,  and  that  new  regiments  had  to  be  raised, 
equipped  and  supported.  There  never  was  any  uprising,  there  were 
no  troops  recruited,  but  the  tax  ran  gayly  along  all  the  same,  and 
the  proceeds  went  into  the  pockets  of  those  in  power.  The  tax 
was  then  raised  to  two  cents  per  pound  as  the  price  of  camphor 
rose  in  the  Hong  Kong  market,  and  as  this  did  not  change  the  state 
of  affairs  it  was  again  raised,  this  time  to  13  cents  per  pound.  At 
the  same  time  the  camphor  growers  were  warned  by  threatening 
proclamations  that  they  were  required  to  pay  this  tax  in  advance 
upon  all  camphor  produced  ;  that  any  delinquency  or  mistake  would 
meet  with  the  severest  punishment,  but  that  the  "  camphor  farm  " 
(a  new  form  of  the  old  Government  monopoly)  would  pay  eight 
cents  a  pound  to  any  and  all  growers  for  their  crop.  Up  to  the 
time  of  these  last  enactments  the  price  of  camphor  had  fluctuated 
in  the  country  where  it  is  grown  from  four  cents  to  eight  cents  a 
pound.  It  now  rose  with  a  jump  to  21  cents.  The  net  return  to 
the  buyer  was  about  five  cents  on  an  average ;  the  difference  went 
