Treaty Ports.
16.—Under various treaties, mainly negotiated by England, twenty-one ports and places have been opened for foreign trade and residence, of which five are on the River Yangtze, penetrating over a thousand miles into the heart of the interior. Two other places were added in 1889, under agreement with France.
At most treaty ports a portion of the urban area has been assigned to the foreign community, who are left free to provide for its regulations—a duty which is usually discharged by the help of tolls on shipping and house rates, as to roads, lighting, public conveyances, and buildings, in a manner which sets the most successful example of municipal work to the neighbouring native administration.
Duty upon Foreign Goods.
17.—An import and an export duty, each averaging 5 per cent. ad valorem, is levied upon goods conveyed in foreign vessels, which are, upon the other hand, exempted from the "Likin" or war tax, and freely granted transit passes, clearing them from the prefectural tolls, which do not a little to embarrass the native trader in the interior.
The duty upon foreign goods is collected by the Imperial Maritime Customs—a splendid service, employing 700 Europeans and 4000 Chinese. It yielded, in 1890, a revenue of 22 million taels (say £5,500,000) to the Chinese Government, or a third more than ten years ago, and further supervises the lighting and buoying of the coast.
Duty upon Native Goods.
18.—The import and the export duty upon goods conveyed in Chinese junks is levied by the Chinese Customs Service; and it is said that many shipments are so made to escape the vigilance and the higher taxation of the European Administration, and are subsequently transferred to foreign bottoms at Hong Kong or elsewhere.
British Share of Foreign Trade.