In view of the great depression of trade in Shanghai, ascribed to the heavy and multiplied system of taxation existing, the representatives of each trade collectively petitioned the Tautai and other authorities concerned on the 13th of this moon, and fearing the subject should not gain publicity far and near, they therefore publish the petition in the Shunpau.
General Petition from the Merchants of Shanghai, Whereas.the heaviness of Likin dues has led to the stoppage of trade, your petitioners pray for their reduc: tion, that the present deplorable position of merchants may be mitigated and business be thereby revived.
We would humbly advance that the in-torest of commerce and the welfare of merchants are vitally connected with the subject in question. From the winter of last year to the present time, no less than fifty to sixty merchants have succumbed to the circumstances of the time, th® total amount failed for reaching the aggregate of Tis, 2,000,000. Many of these failures have been settled privately, but the suits arising therefrom have been so continual as to form suilicient official proof of the facts set forward. An investigation into the course of this widespread adversity, proves it to be owing to the multiplicity. of Tax barriers and to the heaviness of the dues collected. During the time of the Rebellion, Likin barriers, cash shop and house taxes, import and export duties, market dues, bent and timber dues were all successively established. 'The revenue thus collected was exacted from the life-capital of merchants. 'The merchants continued to struggle against adversity until, the "creek being arained and the hill removed," they were at length brought toa stand,' The authorities were afterwards good enough to abolish cash shop, house and market taxes, including them in the Likin tax; and sub: sequently Tseng-kwo-fan further lessened the Likin in order to relieve merchants. But the alleviation thus afforded amounted only to 30%, and has proved inadequate to relieve the heavy weight on trade. Goods coming from the sea are subject to Import dues, merchandise arriving from the interior pays Li-kin ab the Barriers en route, and when reaching Shanghai the ' Loh-tichuan" 4A {26 J is further levied. Again, when re-shipped, those sent by sen. have to pay Export dues, and those sent to the interior are subject to Barrier dues. 1n comparing the total of collection with the value of the goods it amounts to In former times, when goods arrived, if there was a market for them, they were sold; if unsaleable they were sent to another market, or from thence perhaps re-imported into Shanghai. The expenses were very small, and merchants therefore gladly repaired to Shanghai. At present, when goods have once entered the town they cannot again leave it, and after they quit the place they cannot return, simply on account of the Loh-ti-chuan, We beg to represent that at other Ports, although there are Tax Barriers, the Loh ti-chuan" impost does not exist, and Shanghai alone is exceptional in the matter. Moreover, in the Province of Chekiang, the law in regard to levying dues is that, if the Li-kin is paid at one Barrier, the receipt then issued carries the goods to all parts of the Province; but in Kiangsoo dues have to be paid at each alternate Barrier; as for instance on the route to Soochow, where dues have to be paid at three stations and to be vised at tivo alternate ones. Owing to this great difference against Shanghai, merchants—who assemble only where profit is to be yained—view the Port with fear and distrust, In ejection they leave the place to seek a living elsewhere, and it is thus that the outlets to trade become gradually closed and the demand for merchandise extremely limited, these circumstances are much to be deplored. It is not that we shut our eyes to the necessary requisitions of Government; and in support of this, we have merely to revert to the manner in which Shanghai responded recently to the critical call for food and clothes for the North—appearing at the head of the list—but, in our present re~ duced state we cannot but seek after means to revive from the present distress, We therefore pray for special favor at this crisis.
It has, moreover, to be taken into consideration that with the increased circulation of goods the public exchequer benefits equally with the merchant. If Kiangsoo should be placed on the same footing as Chekiang, duties would thereby be lightened and there would be every prospect of a revival in the Shanghai trade, In the other alternative it is to be feared that we shall daily sink lower and lower.
With the great results at stake we cannot remain silent, and we have to beg that his Excellency the Taotai will represent the matter to the Governor-General, the Footai, and to Earl Li Hung-chang. Our prayer is that the state of trade at Shanghai having reached a crisis, from which under the existing regime it will be difficult to recover, the '"Loh-te-chuan" tax be at once abolished, and the Barrier levies outside be placed on the same fooling as in Chekiang,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.