[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Sublime
Porte, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs,
November 22,
1871.
Sir: According to the terms of the
commercial treaties concluded between the Sublime Porte and the
friendly powers, merchandise which, after having paid the import
duties of 8 per cent., and not sold in the empire, are exported
within the delay of six months, dating from the day of their
arrival, must be considered and treated as being in transit.
This diposition of the treaties offers difficulties, in point of
practice, and often gives rise to frauds. In fact, when merchants
wish to sell, in the places of importation, a part of their
merchandise, and at the same time reserve to themselves the faculty
of exporting the remainder, within the delay aforementioned, of six
months, it is difficult to establish at the moment of exportation
the identity of the remaining merchandise. To remedy these
inconveniences, the imperial administration of the customs has just
adopted the following measures:
Twelve stamps, corresponding with-the twelve months of the year, have
been made. Merchants desirous of selling in the place a part of the
merchandise brought from foreign countries, and which they have in
magazines, will be held to transport them previously, to the
custom-house, just as they have been imported. The packages, bales,
or parcels will be there opened, so as to enable each merchant to
withdraw the quantity needed by him. There will then be applied to
the remainder of the said merchandise a stamp corresponding with the
month and the day of their arrival from the foreign country, and the
payment of the import duty of 8 per cent. In this manner, at the
moment of their “exportation to a foreign country, it will be easy
to compare them with the stamps attached to them; and the
custom-house will return the difference between the import and the
transit duty.
This measure, the advantages of which you will appreciate, will be
put in force throughout the whole empire, with the exception of
Trebizonde, within a delay of four months from the day of its
publication.
I therefore beg you, sir, to be so good as to make this decision
known to the merchants, citizens of the United States, so that they
may conform to it.
Accept, also, assurances, &c.
