At the Meeting of the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, held at the Offices, No, 1, Kiukiang Road, on Monday, the 28th September, 1896, at 4 p.m.
Present:—Messrs. E. F. Alford (Chair man), D. Brand, W. D. Little, D. M. Moses, J.B. McMichael, A. Wasserfull, A. Korft, and the Acting Secretary, The Minutes of last meeting were read and confirmed.
After the consideration of General Business the following correspondence was ordered to be published.
With regard to the correspondence on the subject of the Woosung Bar, it was decided to reply to Mr. Keswick that the Committee concur with him that the conditions now demanded by Messrs. Coode, Son, and Matthews are quite out of the question.
Legation of the United States, Peking, 5th September, 1896.
Sm—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 27th ultimo, You therein call attention to a Memorial from the Tsung-li Yamen to the Throne relating to a proposed tariff oh local manufactures and you ask that as Doyen of the E. F. Arrorp, Esq, Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce.
Shanghai, 15th September, 1896.
Dear Srm—As the Tariff question is now being re-opened, the occasion seems fitting that we, the undersigned, buyers of tea in North China, should ask your particular attention to the disastrous con-Gition into which the Chinese tea trade has fallen; which is, in our opinion, largely due to the heavy taxation under which it has laboured for many years, a taxation far in excess of the Treaty tariff of 5 per cent. ad valorem, During last season, 1895 x 1896, the of black tea from China. to Great Britain has amounted to only 374 million pounds, as against 117 millions in season 1887 X 1888 and 169 millions in season 1880 X_1881, a decrease of 181} million nds in fifteen years. This, enormous decrease in the volume of the trade, one of the main foundations of our commercial existence in China has, needless to say, been attended in its course with terrible Joss and distress to large numbers of Chinese. foreigners and to hundreds of thousands of
The taxation consists of the export: duty, Haikuan Taels 2}, or say Shanghai Taels 22, per picul, and the likin taxes which average about Taels 2} per picul,—in all say Tls. 5 per picul, which as the average cost of black tea in North China is about Tls. 20 per picul duty paid, means a tax of over 30 per cent. on the cost of tea purchased at the Treaty Ports. "On sound common tea, which costs about. Tls. 11
amounts to over per picul dity paid, the taxation thus cent. on the'cost. Now the Treaties of Nanking and Tientsin 1842 and 1858) fixed the duty on tea at faikaan Taels 2} per'picul, which was to represent an ad valorem rate of 5 per cent. At the present time, however, an ad rulorem tate of 5 per cent. would be only about of a Tael per picul, and foreigners were entitled rey, ten years to have the Tariff' revised in sense, under Article 27 of the Treaty of Tientsin, 26th June, 1858. As to the skin exactions, which go to make up the Taels 5 per picul, these were of course never contemplated by the Treaties.
Tt is only natural that Chinese tea, nabsed as it is by this crushing taxation, as been quite unable to compete with the untaxed produce of India and Ceylon. Not only in England but also in the smaller markets of Australia and America,. do we see the working of this inevitable To Australia, China will ship-this season only about 7 million: pounds of Black Tea, as against 21 millions in 1880 and 1881 there the untaxed British grown teas have Corps Diplomatique I will move my begun in to be taken of late years with the "Colleagues to inform the Tsung-li Yamen usual result, so that the Australian is now that the proposals of their memorial will almost on'all fours with the English trade. not be assented to by the Foreign Powers."
To North America China ships the bulk I have circulated your communication of her green teas, and there again the tax-and enclosure among the foreign répresentaation tells, as in that market these teas tives, who are now at Peking, or in its have to face the competition of comparatively untaxed Japan teas. (the duty in absent. "It is therefore impossible to secure Tt, happens, however, that sever!.are Japan being only $1 per picul) withthe usual result ofa declining export from meeting for the immediate consideration
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.