But it is the import of foreign goods into Western China that is of paramount interest to the people of this country. Let us, then, look back for a period of years and see how this branch of trade has been conducted. In the various treaties concluded between this country and China, it is agreed that goods of British manufacture may, on payment of the tariff import duty and of a transit duty, be carried into the interior for sale; but the transit certificates which were issued to the owners of the goods on payment of the transit duty were by no means respected. Not only were these certificates not respected, but the rules and conditions under which they were issued differed at each port, and this want of uniformity proved a great hindrance to the development of the trade. It was not till 1876 that the transit pass system was placed upon a solid footing.
In the Agreement of Chefoo concluded in that year, the following clause occurs:—“The Chinese Government agrees that Transit Duty Certificates shall be framed under one rule at all the ports, no difference being made in the conditions set forth therein; and that so far as imports are concerned, the nationality of the person possessing and carrying these is immaterial.” This has proved a new epoch for the transit import trade of China, and I will now point out its effect on Western China, and on the province of Ssŭ-ch’uan in particular. Before entering into the details of this trade, however, I should mention that Ichang, the nearest port to Ssŭ-ch’uan, was opened to foreign trade by the Agreement of Chefoo in 1876, and that, previous to that year, Ssŭ-ch’uan drew its supplies from Hankow, which is four hundred miles to the east of Ichang and six hundred miles from Shanghai.
TRADE STATISTICS.
In 1875, that is to say, when Ichang was not an open port, foreign goods to the value of £40,000 were sent under transit pass from Hankow to Ssŭ-ch’uan; in 1876, the year in which the Agreement of Chefoo was signed, they rose in value to £160,000, and in 1877 to £290,000.
In the spring of 1877, Ichang was opened; but, owing to defective steamer communication between that port and Hankow, it was not till 1878 that it began to take its share in the transit trade to Ssŭ-ch’uan. In that year, it sent up goods of the modest value of scarcely £4,000, against the still increasing transit trade of Hankow of the value of nearly £400,000. It was naturally supposed that the opening of Ichang would attract a considerable share of the transit trade of Hankow; but, curiously enough, the transit trade of both ports with Ssŭ-ch’uan went on concurrently increasing. In 1879, Hankow sent up £600,000, and Ichang £50,000, a total of £650,000; in 1880, Hankow sent up £500,000, and Ichang £250,000, a total of £750,000; in 1881, Hankow figured for £800,000, and Ichang for £200,000, a total of one million; in 1882, Hankow figured for £350,000, and Ichang for £200,000, a total of £550,000; in 1883, Hankow figured for half a million, and Ichang for £350,000, a total of £850,000; and in 1884, Hankow figured for £340,000, and Ichang for £260,000, or a total of £600,000.
The decline of 1884 was due to several causes, the chief of which were a local drought and the complications with France. The average annual value of the foreign goods sent under transit pass to Ssŭ-ch’uan for the five years ended the 31st December, 1884, thus amounted to £750,000, a sum in striking contrast to the forty thousand pounds’ worth forwarded to the same destination in 1875.
The following are the figures for 1885-88:—1885—Ichang, £412,000; Hankow, £491,000. 1886—Ichang, £342,000; Hankow, £379,000. 1887—Ichang, £465,000; Hankow, £255,000. 1888—Ichang, £547,000; Hankow, £250,000.
The enormous increase in trade since 1875 says much for the transit pass clauses in the Agreement of Chefoo; but I will endeavour to show that, so far as Western China is concerned, these transit regulations are by no means perfect. Everyone is aware of the conservative character of the Chinese, and of the difficulties that have to be met in inducing them to leave an established groove. The groove in the present instance is the city of Ch’ung-k’ing, where the native merchants of Shanghai and Hankow have established agencies, to which their foreign goods are consigned for sale and distribution throughout the province of Ssŭ-ch’uan. These goods, having paid the tariff import duty at Shanghai, are carried to Hankow and Ichang, whence, on payment of a transit duty equal to half the tariff import duty, they are conveyed to the province of Ssŭ-ch’uan. The destination of the goods must be expressly stated in the transit duty certificate under which they are carried, and for Ssŭ-ch’uan that destination is Ch’ung-k’ing, where, as I have said, the mercantile agencies are established. So rooted is this custom, that goods are frequently carried past their ultimate destination a distance of more than one hundred miles, thus necessitating their paying an up-freight to Ch’ung-k’ing and a down-freight to their destination, and, owing to their being no longer covered by a transit duty certificate, the usual local taxation.
GRINDING TAXATION.