Page images
PDF
EPUB

same conditions as in the case of re-exportation to another port in China, to a drawback-certificate, which shall be a valid tender to the Customs in payment of import or export duties.

Foreign Grain.

Foreign grain brought into any port of China in a British ship, if no part thereof has been landed, may be re-exported without hindrance.

ARTICLE XLVI.

Preventions against Fraud and Smuggling.

The Chinese authorities at each port shall adopt the means they may judge most proper to prevent the revenue suffering from fraud or smuggling.

ARTICLE XLVII.

British Vessels trading with Ports not opened by Treaty
liable to Confiscation.

British merchant-vessels are not entitled to resort to other than the ports of trade declared open by this Treaty. They are not unlawfully to enter other ports in China, or to carry on clandestine trade along the coasts thereof. Any vessel violating this provision, shall, with her cargo, be subject to confiscation by the Chinese Government.

ARTICLE XLVIII.

Goods in British Vessels found concerned in Smuggling
liable to Confiscation.

If any British merchant-vessel be concerned in smuggling, the goods, whatever their value or nature, shall be subject to confiscation by the Chinese authorities, and the ship may be prohibited from trading further, and sent away as soon as her accounts shall have been adjusted and paid.

ARTICLE XLIX.

Penalties inflicted for Smuggling, &c., to belong to China.

All penalties enforced, or confiscations made, under this Treaty, shall belong and be appropriated to the public service of the Government of China.

ARTICLE L.

Language to be employed in Official Communications.

All official communications, addressed by the Diplomatic and Consular Agents of Her Majesty the Queen to the Chinese authorities, shall henceforth be written in English. They will for the present be accompanied by a Chinese version, but it is understood that, in the event of there being any difference of meaning between the English and Chinese text, the English Government will hold the sense as expressed in the English text to be the correct sense. This provision is to apply to the Treaty now negotiated, the Chinese text of which has been carefully corrected by the English original.

ARTICLE LI.

The Chinese Character “I

(Barbarian) not to be applied

to the British Government or to British Subjects.

66

It is agreed that henceforward the character “I”

(barbarian) shall not be applied to the Government or subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, in any Chinese official document issued by the Chinese authorities, either in the capital or in the provinces.

ARTICLE LII.

Facilities to be granted to British Ships of War.

British ships of war coming for no hostile purpose, or being engaged in the pursuit of pirates, shall be at liberty to visit all ports within the dominions of the Emperor of China, and shall receive every facility for the purchase of provisions, procuring water, and, if occasion require, for the making of repairs. The Commanders of such ships shall hold intercourse with the Chinese authorities on terms of equality and courtesy.

ARTICLE LIII.

Suppression of Piracy.

In consideration of the injury sustained by native and foreign commerce from the prevalence of piracy in the seas of China, the High Contracting Parties agree to concert measures for its suppression.

ARTICLE LIV.

Confirmation of Previous Treaties. - General Most-favourednation Treatment.

The British Government and its subjects are hereby confirmed in all privileges, immunities, and advantages conferred on them by previous Treaties; and it is hereby expressly stipulated that the British Government and its subjects will be allowed free and equal participation in all privileges, immunities, and advantages that may have been, or may be hereafter, granted by His Majesty the Emperor of China to the Government or subjects of any other nation.

ARTICLE LV.

A Separate Article to be agreed upon providing for the Indemnity to be vaid for Losses, &c., of British Subjects at Canton.

In evidence of Her desire for the continuance of a friendly understanding, Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain consents to include in a Separate Article, which shall be in every respect of equal validity with the Articles of this Treaty, the conditions affecting indemnity for expenses incurred and losses sustained in the matter of the Canton question.

ARTICLE LVI.

Ratifications.

The ratifications of this Treaty, under the hand of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and His Majesty the Emperor of China, respectively, shall be exchanged at Peking, within a year from this date of signature.

In token whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed and sealed this Treaty.

Done at Tien-tsin, this twenty-sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight; corresponding with the Chinese date, the sixteenth day, fifth moon, of the eighth year of Hien Fung.

[blocks in formation]

AGREEMENT BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND CHINA CONTAINING RULES OF TRADE MADE IN PURSUANCE OF ARTICLE XXVI OF THE TREATY OF JUNE 26, 1858.

Signed at Shanghae, November 8, 1858.

WHEREAS it was provided by the Treaty of Tien-tsin that a conference should be held at Shanghae between officers deputed by the British Government on the one part, and by the Chinese Government on the other part, for the purpose of determining the amount of Tariff duties and transit dues to be henceforward levied, a conference has been held accordingly; and its proceedings having been submitted to the Right Honourable the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, High Commissioner and Plenipotentiary of Her Britannic Majesty the Queen, on the one part; and to Kweiliang, Hwashana, Ho Kweitsing, Mingshen, and Twau Ching-Shih, High Commissioners and Plenipotentiaries of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, on the other part; these high officers have agreed and determined upon the revised Tariff hereto appended, the rate of transit dues therewith declared, together with other Rules and Regulations for the better explanation of the Treaty aforesaid; and do hereby agree that the said Tariff and Rules -the latter being in ten Articles thereto appended-shall be equally binding on the Governments and subjects of both countries with the Treaty itself.

In witness whereof they hereto affix their seals and signatures.

Rule 1.-Duty on Goods not enumerated in Tariffe.

Articles not enumerated in the list of exports, but enumerated in the list of imports, when exported will pay the amount of duty set against them in the list of imports; and similarly, articles not enumerated in the lists of imports, but enumerated in the lists of exports, when imported will pay the amount of duty set against them in the list of exports.

Articles not enumerated in either list, nor in the list of duty-free goods, will pay an ad valorem duty of five per cent., calculated on their market value.

Rule 2.-Duty-free Goods.

Gold and silver bullion, foreign coins, flour, Indian meal, sago, biscuit, preserved meats and vegetables, cheese, butter, confectionery, foreign clothing, jewellery, plated ware, perfumery, soap of all kinds, charcoal, fire-wood, candles (foreign), tobacco (foreign), cigars (foreign), wine, beer, spirits, household stores, ships' stores, personal baggage, stationery, carpeting, druggeting, cutlery, foreign medicines, and glass and crystal

ware.

The above pay no import or export duty; but, if transported into the interior, will, with the exception of personal baggage, gold and silver bullion, and foreign coins pay a transit duty at the rate of two and a-half per cent. ad valorem.

A freight or part-freight of duty-free commodities (personal baggage, gold and silver bullion, and foreign coins excepted) will render the vessel carrying them, though no other cargo be on board, liable to tonnage dues.

Rule 3. Contraband Goods.

Import and export trade is alike prohibited in the following articles: Gunpowder, shot, cannon, fowling-pieces, rifles, muskets, pistols, and all other munitions and implements of war; and salt.

Rule 4.- Weights and Measures.

In the calculations of the Tariff the weight of a pecul of one hundred catties is held to be equal to one hundred and thirty-three and one-third pounds avoirdupois; and the length of a chang of ten Chinese feet, to be equal to one hundred and forty-one English inches.

One Chinese chih is held to equal fourteen and one-tenth inches English; and four yards English, less three inches, to equal one chang.

« PreviousContinue »