COMMERCE AND COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS.
Import duties.—The rate of duty charged on the importation of foreign produce and manufactures in foreign bottoms is 24½ and 30¼ on the tariff valuation of each article, while the same articles in Spanish bottoms, from a foreign port, pay 17½ and 21¼ per cent.
Export duties.—Foreign flag for any port, 6¼ per cent. on tariff valuation.
Spanish flag for a foreign port, 4½ per cent. on tariff valuation.
Spanish flag for Spanish port, 2¼ per cent. on tariff valuation; except leaf tobacco, which pays 12½, 6¼ and 2¼ per cent., according to the flag and destination.
An additional per centage, under various pretexts, is also levied on the total amount of all duties.
Foreign flour is subject to a duty that is nearly prohibitory.
Gold and silver are free of import duty, but pay, the former 1¼ and the latter 2¼ per cent., export.
Every master of a vessel, on entering port, is obliged to present two manifests of his cargo and stores,—one to the boarding officers, and the other at the time of making entry and taking both the oaths, twenty-four hours after his arrival, with permission of making any necessary corrections within the twelve working hours; and every consignee is required to deliver a detailed invoice of each cargo to his, her or their consignment, within forty-eight hours after the vessel has entered port, and heavy penalties are incurred from mere omission or inaccuracy.