Commercial Relations of the United States with Foreign Countries

This amount of income would be sufficient if the Hong-Que quarter did not so closely adjoin the settlement extending from the Souchow creek to the Yang-king-pang.

But that proximity brings within the quarter all the bad characters, who require a suburb for their pursuits, and who, though appearing as residents of this particular division of the settlement, are in fact the product of the commerce which nourishes this great centre of trade, and belong properly to the whole community.

It thus becomes necessary to maintain within the bounds of Hong-Que a police force disproportioned to its means, and this necessity has been acted upon by the municipal council, as already stated.

This fact, united with many other considerations, leads the committee to think that, if it is possible of accomplishment, the two quarters should be united under one municipal authority without further delay.

The income to be derived from the Hong-Que division will perhaps not be equal to the amount the council would find it necessary to disburse, but the discrepancy is more apparent than real. If there is no amalgamation, and the care of Hong-Que passes into the hands of another council, there will follow such a great reduction in the police there that the interests of the whole port will suffer, and probably in the end greater outlays be incurred. If it passes into the care of the present council, the means, as far as they go, will be directly applied to the objects to be attained, and all the expenses saved incidental to a separate administration. With this view the committes have entered into correspondence with the council on the subject, to obtain their views in season for the action of this meeting.

ED. CUNNINGHAM,
R. R. TYERS,

R. C. ANTROBUS,
DAVID REID,

Provisional Committee of Ways and Means.

SHANGHAI, September 15, 1863.

SHANGHAI, September 14, 1863.

SIR: The provisional committee of ways and means for the Hong-Que quarter, being about to prepare their report for the general meeting on the 17th, would like the views of the municipal council on the following point:

Whether, if a proposition is made and carried at the general meeting that the affairs of that quarter shall be placed in the hands of your council, the proposition would be accepted.

To enable your council to come more easily to a decision, I give below such statistics of the resources of that quarter as we have been able to obtain.

The income from Chinese renters may be considered as understated even with the additions, as the assessment is, as yet, quite incomplete.

The income from foreign property will no doubt be very much larger than stated, for the estimate is on insufficient data, nor can a reliable statement be presented until an assessment by a special committee has been made.

It is possible, however, that if the large police force lately maintained by the council is continued, the expenses would exceed the receipts, as a force of forty men is beyond the means of so thinly settled a district.

But it is just to remember that if so strong a police in that quarter is neces sary, it is so because the bad characters brought here and nourished by the great commerce of the place seck there a refuge from the more vigilant watchfulness of the police which prevails on your side of the creek, and not from any inherent vice in the permanent residents of that quarter.

Not the less, because they domicile themselves in Hong-Que, do these wrong-doers belong to the whole body municipal, and not the less do their plans of violence affect the prosperity and safety of the whole community.

Nothing could be more unjust than that this small quarter should bear alone so large a proportion of the police expenditure, simply because it proves the most convenient locality for the grouping of the foreign community, which requires the most police attention.

The statistics of revenue are as follows:
Yearly Chinese rental, as by statements of assessors
Estimated increase, the statements being imperfect..

On which 8 per cent. is. . . .

144,000

20,000

Foreign property estimate, taels.. 2,000,000..

I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant,

SIR: I am in receipt of your letter of the 14th instant, in which you require to know whether the municipal council, at present existing in the so-called English concession, will take upon themselves the management of affairs on the Hong-Que quarter. By reference to the minutes of the last meeting of the landrenters, you will observe that it is therein stated that the municipal functions were to be extended to the Hong-Que section. This decision the municipal council have no power to alter. The council feel obliged to you for your estimate of taxes leviable on the Hong Que side; they are not aware on what basis the estimate has been conducted, and can, of course, only wait to learn it at the meeting of land-renters, to be held on the 21st instant. The council have paid due regard to your remarks relative to the injustice of the HongQue side bearing proportional expenses to those incurred on this side, the populations being so vastly different; but they think, at the same time, that upon this subject they are not called to discuss or even venture an opinion.

It is presumed that at the meeting of the Hong-Que land-renters, on the 21st instant, the powers of the municipal council will be very clearly defined-a point worthy of great consideration when the fact is recalled to mind that no land regulations, the foundation of all their slender authority, have ever been in force save only on this side.

I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
H. W. DENT, Chairman Municipal Council.

NOVEMBER 24, 1863.

I have the honor to send you, under this cover, the custom-house returns of the import and export trade carried on under foreign flags at this port during the year 1862.

The trade is shown to have been very much greater than that of the previous year; that carried on under the American flag was fully up to the proportion of previous years.

The trade of the current year has, for various reasons, been dull, while that under the American flag shows a positive falling off. The carrying trade between this and the lower ports has been transferred to foreign bottoms, and even upon coasting voyages shippers have shown a decided preference for other flags.

Notwithstanding the rebellion in China, foreign interests generally are rapidly growing in importance. As an indication of the activity pervading all branches of commercial interests, I may mention that of the steamships.

During the last year a new mail line connecting this and other important eastern ports with Europe has been successfully inaugurated by the French government. An English company is also engaged sending out vessels for the Japan trade. Various American houses are interested in this enterprise, and one company, perhaps the largest American steam navigation company in existence, has its vessels employed upon the coast waters and the Yangtsze river. Perhaps there are in all one hundred steamers of various classes engaged in general trade in China.

While speaking of steamships, I may add that we are likely to witness a practical trial of the merits of American and other steamers. The trade is large and increasing and the field mutual. The contest will probably be decided at an early day because of the high cost of steam carriage. Coal ranges in June from ten to twenty dollars per ton, thus making the cost of running a steamer more than double what it is at home, and offering a great advantage to vessels which are economical in its use. *

China is the most important field for western enterprise, and deserves a corresponding attention. Indeed, the policy of other nations is such that if our merchants are not sustained, they cannot maintain the unequal contest credibly to themselves or our people. A few words concerning prominent measures needed will, therefore, be in place.

A line of steamers to California is loudly called for. I think it would be supported, provided that even so moderate a subsidy as three hundred thousand dollars per year could be secured. I speak of a monthly connexion each way, the inward steamer calling at Honolulu and Hong-Kong, and the homewardbound Kanagawa and Bonin islands.

In the laws concerning revenue, the statute of 1856, requiring the mouth's wages to be paid into the consulate for every seaman discharged in a foreign port, though humane in conception, works with great injustice, fairly defeating its own ends. The shipmaster who is just towards his men and the govern ment pays a heavy tax, whilst another, not so well disposed, entirely evades it. The law, in fact, offers a premium for cruelties and dissimulation.

As an instance of its working, I may point out a table to be found in the volume of Commercial Relations of 1861, in which it is shown that during the year 1860 there were discharged before the consul at Havre nineteen (19) men, while the number of deserters was 1,973. I presume the records at Washington, too, will show similar returns from very many consulates.

I should prefer, in lieu of the extra wages, a law which should fix a monthly due for every hundred tons of all vessels, to be paid to the consul at each port for the time since clearing out from the home port, or the last foreign port. A due of twenty-five (25) cents collected in this manner would, I think, in the course of a year amount to more than the entire wages now collected.

Summary of trade at the port of Shanghai for the year 1862.