No. 356.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of
the United States,
Mexico, June 7, 1879.
(Received June 26.)
No. 969.]
Sir: In my No. 966, of the 31st ultimo, on the
adjournment and action of the Mexican Congress, I referred to the revenue
laws passed levying new taxes upon textile fabrics of domestic manufacture,
and in regard to smuggling.
For many years past it has been the settled policy of all administrations of
the Mexican Government to encourage home manufacturers, and especially those
of cotton and woolen goods. To this end they have been in great measure
exempted from taxation and are protected by a tariff on the importation of
similar foreign goods so heavy that in most cases the duties exceed the cost
of the articles. For instance, the following are some of these duties in the
existing tariff: Unbleached domestics, 9 cents per square meter; bleached
domestics, 16 cents; prints or calicoes, 14 cents; white cotton-thread, 60
cents per kilogram$ colored thread, 96 cents; cassimeres and similar woolen
goods, $1.40 per square meter. I inclose herewith an extract from the
revenue law passed at the recent session of Congress, which levies a tax
upon all this class of goods of domestic manufacture. It is estimated that
the total annual production of the cotton and woolen manufactories aggregate
$20,000,000 at the least, and that the tax levied thereon will yield the
government, say, $500,000, so that the rate of the levy on the total product
is about 2½ percent. It will be noticed that to prevent this tax from
operating
[Page 813]
favorably upon the
importation of foreign goods, the same rate of taxation is also levied upon
all similar articles imported through the customhouses, so that the foreign
goods, whose duties are above stated, are to be burdened in addition with
the same tax as that levied on domestic fabrics. This measure has evoked the
most strenuous opposition, not only of the manufacturers but also of the
trade unions and the protectionists generally, and nothing but the most
urgent necessities of a government with an exhausted treasury could have
secured the passage of the law. Some of the factories threaten to stop when
the law goes into effect on the 1st of July, and labor demonstrations
unfriendly to the administration may be anticipated.
I also inclose a translation of the law making smuggling a penal offense
punishable by imprisonment. The contraband trade has become so general, as I
have heretofore had occasion to notice, as to very seriously affect the
revenues of the government, and it has been thought necessary to resort to
the present law in the hope that its vigorous provisions may materially
restrain this illicit commerce.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure 1 in No.
969.—Translation.]
Mexican law levying taxes upon domestic manufactures
and similar foreign goods.
[Extract.]
The Congress of the United Mexican States decrees:
Article 1. The revenues of the federal treasury
for the fifty-fifth fiscal year, which commences the 1st of July, 1879,
and terminates the 30 th of June, 1880, shall he composed of the
following items:
* * * * * * *
14. Of the products of the new imposts which are hereby established and
are the following, which shall commence to be collected from the 1st of
July of the present year, and the articles manufactured in factories or
shops whose capital does not exceed $500 are excepted.
- A.
- Three cents for each gross kilogram of cotton woven goods, smooth
and brown, manufactured in national territory under the denomination
of domestics (mantas) or otherwise.
- B.
- Four cents for each gross kilogram of smooth cotton goods, white
or colored, manufactured in national territory.
- C.
- Two cents for each gross kilogram of cotton thread of whatever
class or factory manufactured in national territory.
- D.
- One cent-for each gross kilogram of yarn of all classes and of
cotton, manufactured in national territory.
- E.
- Two cents for each square meter of carpet, rug, counterpane, and
other analogous woven woolen goods, or wool and cotton or of other
materials with a mixture of any other, manufactured in national
territory.
- F.
- One cent for each square meter of baize, nubias, and other
analogous woolen goods, or wool and cotton, manufactured in national
territory.
- G.
- One cent for each gross kilogram of woolen thread, white or
colored, manufactured in national territory.
- H.
- Duties of importation on the foreign goods similar to the national
goods taxed in the clauses A, B, C, D, E, F, G, adding to the duties
which the former now have fixed by the existing tariff, a sum
equivalent to that established by this law on each one of the
latter.
Inclosure 2 in No.
969.—Translation.
Mexican law imposing penalties of imprisonment for
smuggling.
[Extract.]
The Congress of the United Mexican States decrees:
- Article 1. Besides the penalties
established in chapters 20 and 21 of the maritime and frontier
custom-house tariff of the 1st of January, 1872, the authors of
contraband
[Page 814]
or fraud
against the rights of the treasury, their accomplices, the
receivers of goods, and the employés who may he in collusion
with any of the persons as before described, shall be punished
with the penalties hereafter stated.
- Art. 2. In the cases mentioned in
the clauses I, II, and III of article 86 of the said tariff, if
the owners, conductors, captains, or any other persons
transporting the goods should be apprehended, they will undergo
five years’ imprisonment and their names shall be published in
the newspapers; if it be proven that any commercial house
established in the republic has carried on or favored contraband
after this law shall have gone into force, besides the foregoing
penalties which shall be applied, according to the case, its
name shall also be published in the newspapers, its name shall
not be recognized in any transactions with the public treasury
and will not be admitted in any official or commercial
transaction by any government office.
- Art. 3. In all the other cases
stated in articles 86 and 87 of the tariff, a corporal
punishment of from six months to five years imprisonment will be
imposed, under the following conditions: If the total amount of
the duties defrauded passes one hundred dollars without
exceeding a thousand dollars, an imprisonment of from two to six
months will be imposed; if it exceeds a thousand dollars without
reaching two thousand, double the time; if it passes two
thousand and does not reach three, triple the time; and thus
successively, without exceeding the maximum of five
years.
- Art. 4. Corporal punishment shall
not be inflicted in the cases comprehended in clauses IV, V, and
VI of article 86, chapter XX of the said tariff, when the amount
of the duties does not exceed $200.
- Art. 5. When the manifestation of
the goods in the consular documents is done in an ambiguous
manner, without being subject to the nomenclature of the tariff,
the penalty of double duties will be imposed on the goods which
arrive ambiguously manifested; in this case every package of the
cargo should be examined.
- Art. 6. Accomplices in the offenses
of contraband or fraud in which the penalty of imprisonment is
imposed, half of the punishment shall be inflicted on the first
named, and a fourth on the second, which should or may be
imposed on the principal authors of the contraband or
fraud.
- Art. 7. The government employés who
may be proven to be complicated in the aforesaid offenses shall
suffer the penalties established in the present law, and those
imposed by the tariff in force, and other laws on the subject;
but in every case with the understanding that the imprisonment
inflicted can never be less than double the time imposed upon
the principal delinquent or delinquents of the contraband or
fraud.
