Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session of the Thirty-ninth Congress
Mr. Morris to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of despatch No. 97, and to transmit herein enclosed translations and copies of the new regulations relative to the sale, importation, and manufacture of tobacco in the Ottoman empire.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
Aali Pacha to Mr. Morris.
Sublime Porte, Department of Foreign Affairs,
December 2, 1865.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit to you (here enclosed) some copies of the new regulations, modifying the old ones, concerning the sale and fabrication in Turkey of native and foreign tobacco under every form.
These regulations will be put in force in three months after the date of their promulgation, to wit, the 1st of December, 1865, (N. S.)
I beg you, sir, to be so good as to communicate these new regulations to those of the American merchants as are interested in the matter, so that they may be strictly governed by them.
Accept, sir, assurances of my perfect consideration.
Mr. Morris, Minister Resident of the United States of America.
Regulation relating to snuff, chewing-tobacco, cigars, or tumbeki, imported either from foreign countries, or from Moldo Valachia and Servia, promulgated as a modification of the old regulation on the same subject, and applicable within three months from the date of its promulgation.
Article 1. Cigars and chewing-tobacco, the produce of foreign countries, will be admitted by the custom-houses of the Ottoman empire on the payment of an ad valorem duty of 75 per cent.; this duty will be without discount, and in money of good alloy as par on the calculation of 100 piastres to the medjidich of gold, in the same manner as is established for the reception of the customs duties payable upon all articles of commerce. There will be collected on foreign snuff a duty of 25 piastres the oke whenever its value amounts to 25 piastres the oke or less, and whenever the snuff is of a greater value the duty demanded will be equal to its current price.
Art. 2. The estimation of the value of the merchandise will be according to the invoice presented by the proprietor, and fixing the cost of the merchandise and the expenses of its transportation incurred as far as the bureau of the custom-house at which it is imported. In case there is no invoice the value will be fixed according to the note which the owner shall hand in sealed or signed by himself.
[Page 229]Art. 3. If the value named in the invoice or the note is considered inferior to the real value, the administration of the customs will be free to estimate the merchandise. In case the owner shall refuse to pay the duty on the basis of this estimation the merchandise will be retained for the state at the price indicated in the invoice or note, with an augmentation of ten per cent. The amount will be paid to the owner on his receipt.
Art. 4. The invoice or the note produced by the owner will be retained in all cases by the custom, whether he has paid the duty and received the goods, or whether, after a contest upon the duty claimed, the goods have been retained for account of the state.
Art. 5. The venders of snuff, or chewing-tobacco, or cigars, who have paid the duties, must, be their nationality whatever it may, submit to the arrangements and the taxes which shall be established for the sale in magazines and shops of smoking-tobacco, snuff, or cigars, the produce of the oil, or the industry of the Ottoman empire.
Art. 6. It is well understood that the concession granted is exclusively limited to the cigars already made and to the snuff and chewing-tobacco. The importation into the Ottoman empire of foreign tobacco in leaves or in canats, or in any other form whatsoever, for the purposes of having them made up into cigars, snuff, or smoking-tobacco, will not be allowed under any pretence.
Art. 7. The tumbeki, snuff, cigars, and chewing-tobacco produced of the oil, and the industry of Egypt, of Moldo-Valachia and of Servia, will also be subject to the preceding arrangements; however, the amount of the duty will only be sixty-seven per cent. for tumbeki, the cigars, and chewing-tobacco. There will also be allowed in snuff a reduction of eight per cent. on the amount of duties established in article one.
Art. 8. The snuff, cigars, chewing-tobacco, and the tumbeki, retained for account of the state according to the provisions of article three, shall be sold at public auction, and the produce of the sales carried to the receipts, with a special note of the case.
The agents of the customs will give all attention and exactness possible to the estimating of the merchandise, so as not to surpass the real value, as the interests of the treasury would be evidently injured if the product of the sale should not cover the price at which the merchandise was retained for account of the state, and the custom duties fixed in the present regulation.
A regulation relative, to the mode of collecting the duty called rouhsatie on all kinds of snuff manufactured in the Ottoman empire, promulgated as a modification of the ancient regulation on the same subject, and applicable within three months from the date of its promulgation.
Article 1. Every individual, an Ottoman subject, or that of any foreign power, is free to undertake the manufacture and sale of snuff prepared with tumbeki, or smoking-tobacco, produced in the Ottoman empire. He will, however, be held to pay, conformably with the terms of the established regulations, the license tax, in the place where this article is made or offered for sale, and another of rouhsatie, conformably with the following rules, in case the same article be transported to another locality.
Art. 2. Snuff prepared in the cities, towns, or other localities in which there are officers of the excise, of tobacco destined to be sent to other parts, must pay, when transported, an uniform duty of five piasters per oke, of every kind. A printed teskere or permit will be delivered to the vendor.
Art. 3. Snuff not accompanied with tezkere will be considered as prepared with tobacco or tumbeki produced in a locality where there is no excise bureau, and as not having paid the transport duty, (mourourié.)
Consequently, this snuff will be taxed, on its arrival at a locality in which such an officer exists, at seventeen piasters per oke, representing the tax (mourourié) of tobacco which has served in its manufacture, and the tax rouhsatie or snuff. A permit of transportation (imrarie teskeressi) will be then delivered to the owner, if the snuff is destined for exportation elsewhere, or a permit of sale (rouhsatie teskeressi) if it be for sale on the spot.
Art. 4. The teskeres of transportation, or of sale, issued on the preceding regulations, on the payment of the tax of rouhsatie, will be everywhere valid. No tax will be claimed, under the title of custom-house duties, or any other denomination, on the quantity of snuff stated in the above-mentioned teskeres, either on the transportation of this tobacco from one point of the empire to another or at the moment of exportation.
Art. 5. All the other rules to be observed with regard to snuff will be conformable with the analogous regulations contained in these in force regarding tobacco. In the same manner, snuff coming from foreign parts, or from tributary provinces of the Sublime Porte, the importation of which is allowed, will be subject to the special dispositions of the regulation relative to cigars, to chewing tobacco, and to snuff.