Seventhly: port-charges and other exactions were not defined and fixed, but they generally amounted to not less than three and a half (Spanish) dollars per ton.
Eighthly: Presents were expected, and in fact exacted, from the king to the lowest custom-house officer, according to the usages of Asiatics; there were but a few vessels that did not pay upward of a thousand dollars, if they had a valuable cargo. The difference, therefore, in exactions and impositions, prior and subsequent to the conclusion of the treaty, may be stated on a vessel of two hundred and fifty tons, having a twenty-five feet beam, as follows: The duties, formerly, were from eight to fifteen per cent. on imports; the average rate was not less than ten per cent.
| Now, on a cargo of $40,000, it would give the sum of | $4,000 |
| Add to this $1,50 per pecul on sugar exported, which was equal, at the lowest calculation, to twenty-five per cent., on $40,000, which gives | 10,000 |
| Also, $3,50 per ton for charges | 975 |
| And presents, say | 1,000 |
| If there is added the difference in the sale of the imported cargo to the king or to individuals, the estimate cannot be less than twenty per cent., and probably twice that amount would not cover the loss, | 8,000 |
| Add to this an additional price paid to the king on the produce exported, say it was twenty per cent., is | 8,000 |
| Three months’ charter, arising from detention, at $900 per month | 2,700 |
| Three months’ loss of interest is | 600 |
| $35,275 | |
| From this amount deduct the single charge of 1,700 ticals per each Siamese fathom on the breadth of vessels bringing merchandise. If only specie were brought, 1,500 ticals. | |
| Sixty-eight thousand ticals at sixty-one cents, on seventy-five feet beam, is | 4,275 |
| Making a difference of not less than | $31,000 |
The result is, that the treaty has secured to us a valuable branch of commerce which was entirely destroyed, and which will continue to increase vastly, as the Siamese recover from the serious disasters which resulted from the inundation of the valley of the Menam, for upward of three months, during the year 1831.
Exports from the river Menam (Siam) during the year 1832, showing the quantity and market value of each article.
The foregoing is the quantity ascertained by the government for 1832, to which may be added a considerable quantity for each article smuggled, and principally by the Chinese. The exports, therefore, for the year 1832, taking the foregoing statement to be correct, amount to a sum not less than four and a half millions of dollars.
CHAPTER XXI.
DEPARTURE FROM BANG-KOK FOR SINGAPORE—SINGAPORE—COMMERCE—BUGIS—MARITIME LAWS—DEPARTURE FROM SINGAPORE—STRAITS OF GASPAR—ISLAND OF JAVA—POPULATION OF JAVA—CLOTHING—DYING—STAMPING—FRUITS—BIRDS.