CONTENTS. ᏢᎪᎡᎢ Ꮮ. GENERAL NOTICES. I. Preliminary Remarks ... II. Geographical and Historical Notices... III. Chronological Tables of the Annamese Dynasties 48 IV. Situation of Annam as an Independent Country 57 them ... ... ... ... VIII. Magazines for Coins, and Laws referring to Page. Su XI. The NGO Family.-The twelve quan.—The T DINH Dynasty. The former LE Dynasty.-940-1010 A.D. 75 XII. The Ly Dynasty.-1010-1225 ... 85 ... ... ... ... 90 XVI. The LE Dynasty.-1428-1785 ... XVIII. The MAC and NGUYEN Governments. XIX. The TAY-SON Rebellion.-1764-1801... 122 THE HOPPO-BOOK OF 1753. * BY F. HIRTH, PH. D. glancing over a catalogue of old and rare books published by an Amsterdam antiquarian firm, my eyes were struck by the following curious item: "Hoppo-book, an explanation of the Custom House books, translated anno 1753 with the manner of settling the duties on all goods imported and exported at the port of Canton. M.S. Avec quantité de marques et caractères Chinois." I at once wrote for the book and got it. It is a manuscript written on old Dutch paper, in English spelt as words were spelt towards the close of the last century. The writer apparently takes some trouble in writing "the," but every now and then falls back into the of his school days. The first ten pages contain "an explanation of the Custom House books." They throw some light on the method followed then (in 1753) by the Canton authorities in levying dues and duties upon shipping and goods. No author's name is given. The book was probably written by some factory merchant or a factory employé who collected all available information regarding the taxation of trade at Canton for the benefit of a friend or employer at home. The author quotes an account of the matter given him by a Mr. Lockwood while he was at Limpo (sic) in 1756. It appears therefrom that he was at that place, probably a Chinese place, in that year. Mr. Lockwood had procured the information given by him together with a Mr. Pigod. It appears not impossible that the last named gentleman be identical with a Mr. Pigou mentioned as a factory chief in the gunner's case of 1784. (See Davis, The Chinese, p. 57 in vol. I of the edition of * Read before the Society on the 29th August, 1882. 1857.) No mention is made throughout the book of Mr. Flint who had been acting as interpreter to the factories in 1747 and just at the time when our manuscript was draughted must have been at the height of his reputation as a Chinese scholar and a judge of Chinese commercial and fiscal matters. The second and greater part of the book consists of copies of the three Chinese tariffs then in force (the fixed tariff, the tariff of values and the comparative tariff.) The Chinese text of this part is apparently written by a Hsien-sheng, who did his work faithfully from beginning to end, whereas the English version is but partially entered in the spaces left blank for it. The translator did apparently not know Chinese, but made his entries with the assistance of a linguist. He confines his renderings to the names of articles in the tariff with the duty fixed for them. Sentences and other more complicated expressions are left untranslated. One cannot help being struck by the quality of the ink used in the Chinese portion of the tariffs; these characters look as if they were written yesterday, both in shape and in colour; we would have never credited them with a hundred and twenty years age but for the quaint pale English writing they are mixed up with. The division of the tariff is very much the same as that of the present Chinese one. The goods are brought into certain categories; the tariff units being generally the same as nowadays (100 catties, piece, etc.) Imports and Exports are not distinguished. The duties themselves appear low, though not so if we consider the great difference existing in the value of money then and now. It appears that five kinds of taxes were then levied on foreign trade, viz:— 1.-An Import Duty, payable on merchandize imported by a fixed Tariff. 2.-An Export Duty, payable on all exports, irrespective of origin (i. e., including foreign goods re-exported to other Chinese provinces, say to Ningpo, to which place foreign ships |