Mr. Plumb to Mr. Seward
Sir: I have the honor to enclose herewith copy and translation of a decree, published in the official paper of the 6th instant, establishing what is termed a protective duty upon the importation of foreign flour.
By the tariff of 1856, which in general is still in force, the importation of wheat flour was permitted only in Acapulco, Yucatan, Tampico, Matamoros, and the frontier custom-houses of the north.
At those posts and frontier custom-houses its importation was permitted, for the consumption of the population of the frontier and of those parts, with the sole duty of one dollar on common and one dollar and a half per barrel on fine flour; the introduction at Tampico, however, being limited to an annual quantity of one thousand barrels, with a duty of one dollar and a half on common and two dollars per barrel on fine flour.
On the 2d of September, 1858, when the constitutional government was located at Vera Cruz, and communication between that port and the interior was interrupted, an order was issued extending the permission also to that port, with a duty of four dollars per barrel, and the charges known as “additional duties” then established. Under this permission the importation of flour into Vera [Page 476] Cruz has continued, until, on the 1st of October of the present year, an order was suddenly issued terminating the privilege.
That order, and the present decree, appear to have been issued without previous notice, and to take effect at once on their issuance.
Complaint upon that ground has been addressed to this legation, regarding the order of 1st October last.
The interior or additional duties referred to in the present decree amount, as I am informed upon inquiry at the treasury department, at the present time, to sixty-eight and one-half per cent, upon the amount of the direct duties imposed.
The total duty, therefore, now required to be paid under the present decree, in all parts of the republic, upon the introduction of foreign flour, is $13 48 per barrel when flour is worth in the United States from $6 to $8; $10 11 when the price is from $8 to $10; and $6 74 when the price is from $10 upwards.
The expenses of transportation to the interior from the ports or the frontier, as also from the interior to those localities for domestic flour, are so great, that it would seem no other protection for the present against flour from the United States was necessary.
It would also seem evident that the interests of consumers on the frontier and in the ports of Mexico that have heretofore been open to our flour at a low rate of duty, would be promoted by the continuance of such rates, as our commerce in that article will certainly be very much restricted by the high rates now imposed.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.