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be admitted to trade at such ports as far as Han-kow, not exceeding three in number, as the British Minister, after consultation with the Chinese Secretary of State, may determine shall be ports of entry and discharge.

Article XI. In addition to the cities and towns of Canton, Amoy, Fuchow, Ningpo, and Shanghai, opened by the Treaty of Nanking, it is agreed that British subjects may frequent the cities and ports of New-Chwang, Tang-Chow, Tai-Wau (Formosa), Chau-Chow (Swatow), and Kiung-Chow (Hainan).

They are permitted to carry on trade with whomsoever they please, and to proceed to and fro at pleasure with their vessels and merchandise.

They shall enjoy the same privileges, advantages, aud immunities, at the said towns and ports, as they enjoy at the ports already opened to trade, including the right of residence, of buying or renting houses, of leasing land therein, and of building churches, hospitals, and cemeteries.

Article XII.-British subjects, whether at the ports or at other places, desiring to build or open houses, warehouses, churches, hospitals, or burial-grounds, shall make their agreement for the land or buildings they require at the rates prevailing among the people, equitably, and without exactions on either side.

Article XV.-All questions in regard to rights, whether of property or person, arising between British subjects, shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the British authorities.

Article XVI.-Chinese subjects who may be guilty of any criminal act towards British subjects shall be arrested and punished by the Chinese authorities, according to the laws of China.

British subjects who may commit any crime in China shall be tried and punished by the Consul, or other public functionary authorised thereto, according to the laws of Great Britain.

Justice shall be equitably and impartially administered on both sides.

Article XVII.-A British subject having reason to complain of a Chinese, must proceed to the Consulate, and state his grievance. The Consul will inquire into the merits of the case, and do his utmost to arrange it amicably. In like manner, if a Chinese have reason to complain of a British subject, the Consul shall no less listen to his complaint, and endeavour to settle it in a friendly manner. If disputes take place of such a nature that the Consul cannot arrange them amicably, then he shall request the assistance of the Chinese authorities, that they may together examine into the merits of the case, and decide it equitably.

Article XVIII.—The Chinese authorities shall at all times afford the fullest protection to the persons and property of British subjects, whenever these shall have been subjected to insult or violence. In all cases of incendiarism or robbery, the local authorities shall at once take the necessary steps for the recovery of the stolen property, the suppression of disorder, and the arrest of the guilty parties, whom they will punish according to law.

Article XXIV.-It is agreed that British subjects shall pay, on all merchandise imported or exported by them, the duties prescribed by the Tariff; but in no case shall they be called upon to pay other or higher duties than are required of the subjects of any other foreign nation.

Article XXV.-Import duties shall be considered payable on the landing of the goods, and duties of export on the shipment of the

same.

Article XXVI.-Whereas the Tariff fixed by Article X. of the Treaty of Nanking, and which was estimated so as to impose on imports and exports a duty at about the rate of five per cent. ad valorem, has been found, by reason of the fall in value of various articles of merchandise, therein enumerated, to impose a duty upon these considerably in excess of the rate originally assumed as above to be a fair rate, it is agreed that the said Tariff shall be revised, and that as soon as the Treaty shall have been signed, application shall be made to the Emperor of China to depute a high officer of the Board of Revenue to meet, at Shangai, officers to be deputed on behalf of the British Government, to consider its revision together, so that the Tariff, as revised, may come into operation immediatety after the ratification of this Treaty.

Article XXVII.-It is agreed that either of the High Contracting Parties to this Treaty may demand a further revision of the Tariff, and of the commercial Articles of this Treaty, at the end of ten years; but if no demand be made on either side within six months after the end of the first ten years, then the Tariff shall remain in force for ten years more, reckoned from the end of the preceding ten years; and so it shall be, at the end of each successive period of ten years.

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Article XLVII.-British merchant-vessels are not entitled to resort to other than the ports of trade declared open by this Treaty. They are not unlawfully to enter other ports in China, or to carry on clandestine trade along the coasts thereof. Any vessel violating this provision, shall, with her cargo, be subject to confiscation by the Chinese Government.

Article XLVIII.—If any British merchant-vessel be concerned in smuggling, the goods, whatever their value or nature, shall be subject to confiscation by the Chinese authorities, and the ship may be prohibited from trading further, and sent away as soon as her accounts shall have been adjusted and paid.

CHAPTER XVII.

TRADE WITH JAPAN AND SIAM.

Mission to Japan.-Treaty with Japan.-The Coinage of Japan.-British and American Traders.-Issue of a New Coinage.-Treaty with Siam.- Consular Jurisdiction in the East.

PENDING the signing of the treaty and the discussion of the Chinese tariff, the Earl of Elgin proceeded to Japan, with a view to procuring the opening up of communication with the government of that country. Arrived at the bay of Yedo, Lord Elgin made known to the foreign minister of the Emperor his arrival, and his instructions to deliver a steam yacht, which her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain had sent as a proof of her esteem and regard to his Majesty; and added that he possessed full powers to adjust and conclude such treaties, agreements, and conventions as might be conducive to the extension and improvement of the relations of commerce and amity between Great Britain and Japan. For full two centuries had Japan eschewed all contact with the outer world, and a decree had been issued, dated 1637, making it a capital offence for the natives of Yedo to travel into other countries. At the commencement of the seventeenth century the East India Company obtained some footing in Japan, and a commercial treaty was concluded in 1613 by which authority was given to the company to enter into all the ports of Japan, and to abide, buy, sell, and barter as they pleased; but the company was not successful in its transactions, and withdrew from the trade. Subsequently, a formal prohibition of trade was issued and acted upon, especially against the Portuguese. And when, in 1673, English ships arrived at Japan and expressed a wish to resume the right of trading, the Japanese government, which had ascertained, probably from the Dutch, that the King of England, Charles II., had married a daughter of the King of Portugal, refused compliance with the request, and extended the prohibition to the English also.

In 1854 the United States sent a mission to Japan for the purpose of obtaining facilities in those waters for providing provisions and coals, and negotiations commenced, which resulted in a treaty, signed at Kanagawa on March 31, stipulating for the immediate

opening of the port of Hakodadi, as well as for authority to the United States Government to establish consuls in the two ports. In the same year, Admiral Sterling, then commanding in those seas, entered into a convention with the government of Japan with regard to the opening of Nagasaki and Hakodadi to British ships, and obtained the privilege of access to the country for British merchants. But little result had been obtained from that treaty when the Earl of Elgin opened negotiations on the subject. Happily the overtures of the British minister were well received; and, contrary to all previous experience, commissioners were at once appointed by the Tycoon, and a treaty of peace, friendship, and commerce was signed in the English, Japanese, and Dutch languages at Yedo, August 26, 1858, and ratified July 11, 1859.

The treaty empowered the Queen of the United Kingdom to appoint a diplomatic agent to reside at Jedo, and consuls at the open ports; granted ample recognition of consular jurisdiction. and the immunities of exterritoriality; opened to British subjects, at specified periods, several of the most important ports and cities of Japan, viz. Hakodadi, Kanagawa, Nagasaki, and Ne-e-gata, or other convenient port on the coast of Neppo and Hiogo; gave power to land and store supplies for the use of the British navy at Kanagawa, Hakodadi, and Nagasaki, without payment of duty; and power to British subjects to buy from and sell to Japanese subjects directly, without the intervention of the Japanese autho rities; provided that foreign coin should pass for corresponding weight of Japanese coin of the same description; authorised British and Japanese subjects freely to use foreign or Japanese ccin in making payments to each other; and gave a right to British subjects for one year to demand of the Japanese Government Japanese coin in exchange for theirs, equal weights being given; and power to export all description of gold and silver, coined and uncoined. The treaty further established the abolition of tonnage and transit dues, and reduction of duties on exports from 35 per cent. to a general rate of 5 per cent. ad valorem; and concluded with a general clause that the British Government and its subjects should be allowed free and equal participation in all privileges immunities, and advantages that may have been or may be hereafter granted by his Majesty the Tycoon of Japan to the government or subjects of any other nation.

Thus far matters proceeded in a most satisfactory manner. Unfortunately, however, the treaty itself contained the seed of imminent discord in the clauses respecting the currency, and i'

The British diplomatic and consular service in Japan consisted in 1870 an envoy extraordinary at Yedo, and consuls at Hakodadi, Kanagawa, Ne gata, Nagasaki, Hiogo, and Osaka.

2 Gold appears to have even been more abundant than silver in Japa Marco Polo, writing in 1298, said, The inhabitants of Zipangu have gold in greatest abundance, its sources being inexhaustible.' An old Spanish writer

was not long before the newly-formed intimacy between the two countries was seriously endangered. When the American squadron visited Japan, in 1853, there were current in Japan a small round coin, with a square hole, called cash; a similar larger coin, weighing less than two of the former, but bearing a fourfold value-the two kas piece; a large lozenge-shaped bronze coin, called a tempo, of the nominal value of 96 or 100 kas; an oblong silver coin, called an ichibu or bu, and valued at 16 tempos or 1,600 kas; and a smaller gold and silver coin, half ichibu.3 The silver was overvalued as compared with the copper and gold coins, so that the silver ichibu passed for three times its value, and was in reality only a token coin. Since, however, by the British treaty with Japan, and by precisely similar terms concluded between the United States and Japan, the Japanese Government bound themselves for one year to give Japanese coin in exchange for British or American, weight for weight, and to supply ichibus against dollars, it became a practice for the foreign merchant to take 100 dollars to the custom house and to obtain for them token coins weight for weight, viz. 311 ichibus. But with this money the foreign merchant could go to the market and obtain gold kobangs worth two to three times the intrinsic value of his dollars. He had, in fact, only to send kobangs to Shanghai and have them converted into dollars to recommence the operation.

The British and American traders, alive to their opportunity, sought to take advantage of it to the full, and made demands on the treasury for such fabulous sums of Japanese silver the seventeenth century stated that the palaces at Yedo were covered with plates of gold. Kämpfer wrote in the eighteenth century that the riches of Japan consisted in all sorts of minerals and metals, particularly in gold, silver, and copper. Ralph Fitch in 1588 wrote that the Portuguese had a great carac, which went thither every year and brought from thence every year 600,000 crusados (more than 500,000 dollars). In 1637 six Portuguese galliots visited Japan with cargoes of silk, and carried away in exchange 3,000,000 dollars. The Dutch in 1640 exported 1,400 chests of silver, each of 1,000 taels, that is, nearly 2,000,000 dollars. According to a Japanese pamphlet, written in 1708, from 1611 to 1706 there were exported from Japan, silver, 112,268,700 taels (34,000,0007.), gold, 6,192,600 kobangs (11,000,0007.). In 1672 the exportation of silver was prohibited, and the nominal value of gold was raised in the proportion of 17 to 15. In 1696 its fineness was for the same object reduced from 20 carats 10 grains to 13 carats 7 grains. In 1710 the weight was reduced from 47 nomme (237·7 grains troy) to 2.5 nomme (145-6 grains troy). According to Sir Stamford Raffles, in the two hundred years from 1540 to 1740, Japan must have been drained of bullion to the value of 200,000,000 dollars.-Mr. Alcock's report, 1866, p. 617.

The coins in circulation in 1866 were the rio or kobang, a thin oval gold coin, weighing 88 nomme (51.25 grains troy). The bu or ichibu (from 'ichi,' one, and bu,' a portion), an oblong silver coin weighing 2:3 nomme (133.95 grains troy). The nibu or two bu piece, a yellow oblong coin of gold and silver mixed, weighing 1·6 nomme (93.184 grains). The nishu, a small oblong silver coin, half a nomme (29-12 grains). The nishu or two bu piece, a silver-gilt coin. The zenior mongseng, an iron coin, 1,700th of an ichibu. The hachi-mongseng, or eight mongseng piece, a mixed iron and copper circular coin, with a square hole in the centre. The tempo, called also hiyaku-mongseng, or 100 mongseng piece, a large oval coin with a hole in the middle.-Mr. Alcock's report, p. 631.

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