CLASS III.

9

§ 109. Vessels belonging to the following nations are admitted into the United States on the same terms, in respect to impost, as vessels of the United States, only when laden with goods, wares, and merchandise the production or manufacture of the country to which such vessels may belong:

France,1

Hawaiian Islands.

CLASS IV.

Portugal,2

§ 110. The commercial relations of the United States with the following nations are not referable to either of the foregoing classes:

§ 111. Borneo. By the treaty with the Sultan of Borneo, concluded in 1850, it is stipulated that no duty exceeding one dollar per tun register shall be levied on vessels of the United States entering the ports of Borneo; such tunnage duty to be in lieu of all other charges and duties whatsoever.

§ 112. China. By the treaty concluded in 1844, vessels

and this shall be in full consideration of all import and export duties, tunnage, license to trade, pilotage, anchorage, or any other charge whatever: nor shall any charge be paid on that part of the cargo which may remain on board unsold and reëxported; nor shall any charge whatever be paid on any vessel of the United States which may enter any of the ports of his majesty for the purpose of refitting, or for refreshments, or to inquire the state of the market. Treaty 1833, Art 3.

1 Under the convention of 1822, tunnage and other navigation dues are exacted, on vessels of the United States entering at ports in France, at the rate of five francs per tun, and in ports of the United States on French vessels at ninety-four cents per tun. Goods, wares, and merchandise, the production or manufacture of either country, are exempted from the payment of discriminating duties on direct importation into the other, the origin of such goods being certified by the consuls of the respective countries. By a decree of Dec. 17, 1851, vessels of the United States laden with cotton may touch at British ports without losing the privilege of direct importation, provided bulk be not broken at such port, and no operation of commerce be transacted. French vessels arriving in the ports of the United States from Martinique, Guadaloupe, Cayenne, St. Pierre, and Miquelon, when direct from said islands, in ballast, or with articles the growth, production, or manufacture thereof, are entitled to the same privileges, in respect to tunnage and impost, as vessels of the United States, and vice versa.

2 Under the provisions of the treaty of 1840, vessels of Portugal entering ports of the United States, either from Portugal or any other country, are exempt from tunnage dues. Such vessels may also import articles of the production or manufacture of countries other than Portugal without incurring the penalties of the navigation act of 1817; but such articles are liable to the discriminating duty of ten per cent., imposed by the act of August 30, 1842. So sugar imported in a Portuguese vessel from Brazil was held to be liable to this duty in addition to the duty imposed by the tariff of 1857.

of the United States are permitted to trade at the following ports, viz.: Amoy, Canton, Foochow-Fu, Ningpo, and Shanghai, but at no other ports on pain of confiscation of vessel and cargo. Vessels exceeding one hundred and fifty tuns burden are subject to tunnage duties at five mace (seventy-two and one half cents) per tun; vessels of one hundred and fifty tuns or under, one mace, (fourteen and one half cents nearly,) to be paid at one port only. Vessels of the United States may import and export all kinds of merchandise not prohibited.1

§ 113. Dominica.- Vessels of the Dominican republic are liable to tunnage duties at the rate of one dollar per tun, including light money, that being the duty imposed on vessels of the United States entering Dominican ports. The differential duty of ten per cent. does not, however, attach to their cargoes, no discrimination being made by the Dominican authorities, in respect to impost, against merchandise imported in vessels of the United States. But a Dominican vessel arriving in the United States from other than a Dominican port, is liable, in addition to the duty of tunnage, to the differential duty of ten per cent.

§ 114. Hayti.-Vessels of the Empire of Hayti are liable, on entering ports of the United States, to the payment of tunnage duties and light money at the rate of one dollar per tun, but merchandise imported in them is admissible on the same terms as in vessels of the United States.

§ 115. Japan. Vessels of the United States, under the treaty of 1854, are permitted to enter the ports of Hakodade and Simoda, and no other ports of the Japanese Empire unless in distress, or forced in by stress of weather. Commerce is limited to the exchange of gold and silver coin, and articles of goods for other articles of goods, under such regulations as shall be temporarily established by the Japanese government. § 116. Morocco. · By the treaty of 1836, it is agreed that the commerce of the United States shall be on the same footing as is the commerce with Spain, or as that with the most favored nation for the time being.

§ 117. Loo Choo.- Under a compact made with the royal government in 1854, vessels of the United States are admitted

1 Unofficial advices, while these pages are in preparation, announce that by a treaty concluded in June, 1858, the ports of Swatow and Taiwan are opened to commerce, and that in respect to duties of tunnage and impost, the vessels of the United States are placed on the footing of the most favored

nation.

into any of the ports of Loo Choo, and allowed to trade freely with the officers or people of the islands.

§ 118. Siam. By the treaty concluded with the King of Siam, in 1833, vessels of the United States entering any port of his majesty's dominions, and selling or purchasing cargoes of merchandise, are required to pay, in lieu of any other charge whatsoever, a measurement duty only, as follows: The measurement to be made from side to side, in the middle of the vessel's length; and if a single decked vessel, on such single deck; if otherwise, on the lower deck. On every vessel selling merchandise, the sum of one thousand seven hundred ticals, or bats, the tical being equal to sixty-one cents, shall be paid for every Siamese fathom in breadth, so measured; the said fathom being computed to contain seventy-eight American inches; but if the said vessel should come without merchandise, and purchase a cargo with specie only, she shall then pay the sum of fifteen hundred ticals for each and every fathom before described. It is further stipulated that on vessels entering the ports of Siam for the purpose of refitting, or for refreshments, or to ascertain the state of the markets, no duty or charge whatsoever shall be imposed.

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§ 119. Spain and her possessions. - Vessels of Spain entering ports of the United States from ports in Spain or her adjacent islands, are subject to a tunnage duty of five cents per tun, that being the rate of duty levied on vessels of the United States entering the ports of Spain and her said islands. The cargoes of such vessels are liable also to the discriminating duty of ten per cent. imposed by the tariff act of August 30, 1842.

§ 120. Vessels of Spain arriving in the United States from Teneriffe, or either of the Canary Islands, are entitled to entry both in respect to tunnage and impost duties, on the same terms as vessels of the United States, provided a certificate of the United States consul be produced, that the royal decree declaring said islands free to vessels of the United States, without payment of tunnage or discriminating duties, remains in full force.

§ 121. By the acts of July 13, 1832, and June 30, 1834, vessels of Spain arriving from the Islands of Cuba and Porto Rico are required to pay in the ports of the United States the same rate of duty on tunnage that shall be levied on vessels of the United States at the port in said islands from whence such Spanish vessels shall have last departed; and likewise such further tunnage duty as shall be equivalent to the amount

of discriminating duty that would have been imposed on the cargoes imported in the same vessels, respectively, if the same had been exported from the port of Havana in vessels of the United States. It having been ascertained by the treasury department that vessels of the United States arriving in the Islands of Cuba and Porto Rico in ballast are not subjected to the payment of any tunnage duty whatever, and that like vessels arriving with merchandise are exempted from the payment of tunnage duties, if such vessels export or convey therefrom cargoes of molasses taken on board at said islands, collectors are instructed (Gen. Reg. Art. 917) that Spanish vessels arriving in the United States from Cuba or Porto Rico, either in ballast or laden with molasses taken in at those islands, together with such quantity of fresh fruit as may be deemed admissible as stores, are in like manner exempt from the liability to tunnage duties, provided the master of any such vessel shall produce at the time of entry a certificate from the chief officer of the customs of the port from which the vessel last departed, authenticated by the United States consul, proving the continuance in said island of the exemption from tunnage duties of vessels of the United States, under the circumstances specified; and provided further, that said vessel shall depart from the United States in ballast, or laden with molasses or the staple productions of the United States, under the restrictions contained in the third section of the act of June 30, 1834. This exemption, however, applies only to duties on tunnage; the merchandise imported in such Spanish vessels being subject to the appropriate rates of duty imposed by the tariff, together with the discriminating duty of ten per cent. imposed by the act of August 30, 1842.

By a decree of the government of Spain, of September 1, 1856, vessels of all nations, laden with fruit only, are subjected, on entry at any port in the Island of Cuba, to a tunnage duty in proportion to the tunnage of the cargo, and not that of the vessel's measurement. Consequently vessels of Spain arriving in the United States from ports in said island, so laden, are in like manner subject only to a tunnage duty on the measurement of the cargo imported, instead of a duty on the vessel's tunnage, as heretofore. Treasury Reg. June 30, 1857.

§ 122. Spanish vessels from Cuba (except as above) are subject to tonnage duty of $1 50 per ton, and from Porto Rico, eighty-seven and one half cents per ton, and ten per cent. additional duty on their cargoes; also a discriminating duty equal to the export duty to which a vessel of the United

States would have been liable in those islands over a Spanish vessel; and, before clearing directly or indirectly for either of those islands, such further duty as a vessel of the United States, with a similar cargo, would be liable to, over a Spanish vessel in the ports of those islands. Gen. Reg. Art. 917.

§ 123. A Spanish vessel leaving a port of Spain for a port in Cuba, but not finding there a satisfactory market, proceeding, without breaking bulk or taking in any goods at said island, to a port in the United States, would not (nor her cargo) on entry be subject to any other or higher duties of tunnage or imposts than she would be if direct from a port of Spain to the United States; the voyage, under the circumstances, being regarded as continuous. Ibid.

§ 124. Where Spanish vessels are about to depart from a port of the United States with any goods, wares, or merchandise, for any destination other than some port or place in the Islands of Cuba or Porto Rico, the bond and security required by the 3d section of the Act of 30th June, 1834, must be exacted before allowing clearance or departure of the vessels.1 Ibid.

§ 125. The Swiss Confederation. By the convention of 1850 it is stipulated that in all that relates to the importation, exportation, and transit of their respective products, the United States and the said Confederation shall treat each other, reciprocally, as the most favored nation, union of nations, state, or society.

§ 126. It is further provided that no port of the United States shall be closed to articles arriving from Switzerland, when conveyed in vessels of the United States, or in vessels of any country having free access to the ports of said States. Swiss merchandise, therefore, arriving under the flag of the United States, or under that of one of the nations most favored by them, is to pay the same duties as the merchandise of such nation. Under any other flag it is to be treated as the merchandise of the country to which the vessel belongs.

§ 127. In accordance with these stipulations, it has been decided by this department that Swiss goods imported in French vessels are not liable to discriminating duty, no such duty being chargeable on the products or manufactures of France, when directly imported from that country. Reg. Art. 918.

Gen.

1 For the cancellation of this bond, a certificate is required to be produced from an American consul, testifying to the landing of the said cargo elsewhere, bona fide, and without intention of reshipping to either of said islands.